London, April 22, 2005
Darshan Malhotra
NRI press
NRI Gurpreet Dev, 26, who posed as a wealthy "futures
trader", strangled his father after using his
name and assets to obtain 277,000 pounds to pay off
his gambling debts, a local court was told here. He
was claiming that he was earning over a quarter of
a million pounds a year through share trading on the
internet but he had lost thousands through internet
spread betting, the jury heard.
He began defrauding his parents, borrowing money
against the mortgage to the family home where he was
living and taking out loans in their name to cover
his debts, the court was told.
On October 26 2003 Dev killed his 59-year old father
Harjit before dumping his body in the boot of his
car, the court heard. And he told the jury that the
day before the murder Dev had used Yahoo to make two
internet searches - "murder poison" and
"murder kill".
He told the court that the body lay undiscovered
in a nearby road for several months before police
found the corpse. He placed his father's body into
a suitcase and perhaps strangely stored it for several
months in the boot of a Ford car until it was found
by the police in that vehicle which he had abandoned
in a street not far from where the family lived.
Gurpreet was the only member of the household not
to have a job and instead tried to make a living by
spread betting and playing the stock exchange online,
said Sir John. The family lived in Pembroke Road in
Seven Kings, Ilford. Along with factory worker Mr
Dev were his wife, the defendant Gurpreet, his two
sisters, a family friend and a nephew.
Dev himself joined in searches and even made the
official missing persons report to police, said Sir
John. But despite house to house inquiries, posters
and publicity in the papers and TV the disappearance
remained a mystery, the court heard. Sir John told
the jury that less than two months after the killing
Dev was claiming to have sold the Ford and had brought
himself a BMW 5 series.
Dev was later declared bankrupt.
In March the body was found and Dev was later arrested,
said Sir John. He told the jury that while in Belmarsh
prison he plotted with Whelan to bribe one of Whelan's
friends to make a statement blaming someone else for
the killing.
Dev denies murder. He and Whelan, of Woolwich, southeast
London, both deny conspiring to pervert the course
of justice.