NRI
Inderpal Narula, jailed for dumping millions of letters
London, November 22, 2005
Ashok Malhtra
NRI, (non-resident Indian) Inderpal Narula, 33, and
Royston Heaton, 42, directors of postal company, disposed
of more than 360,000 letters and parcels.-including
vital hospital blood test results, university acceptance
letters and charity mail
This is Britain's largest ever mail destruction case
and both jailed for two years yesterday. The firm's
forklift driver, Bulgarian Zhivko Antov, 26, from
Acton, was given a nine-month suspended sentence.
They netted at least £3.2million as their
company dumped 2,700 kilos of post daily over a year
Southwark Crown Court, Judge Andrew Goymer ordered
Narula, from Burnham, Berks, to pay £500,000
and Heaton, from Holton, near Oxford, £400,000
in compensation within four months. Judge Andrew Goymer
gave them four months to find the money or each suffer
a further two years in jail.
Their company, Mail Logistics was contracted to deliver
post in bulk internationally and at a cut price for
companies, but instead of carrying out their duties,
Narula and Heaton got Zhivko Antov, a 26-year-old
Bulgarian forklift truck driver, to dump the letters
in three huge skips across London.
The court heard that the pair earned between £30,000
and £40,000 in 2002, but pocketed £1m
each by simply not paying for the mail to be delivered.
In 15 days Narula and Heaton ordered Antov to dump
368,718 pieces of mail. Narula told Heaton , "Don't
worry - if we get caught we can blame it on the staff."
After receiving complaints from overseas magazine
subscribers, Royal Mail became suspicious . Heaton's
private computer was seized which contained "incriminating
e-mails"
Both spent their money on luxury houses and fast
cars, but Antov received only his normal wages.
