Ghanshyam Sarup Batra, former director of London aparthotels operator Dylan Lettings Worldwide, has been handed a suspended prison sentence for fraud after he illegally transferred over £100,000 to his personal account.
Following an Insolvency Service investigation, Batra was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 18 months, after he drained the company’s bank account during a four-day period in 2017.
Batra, who previously declared he wanted to become mayor of London at the 2024 mayoral elections, pleaded his innocence, claiming that he removed the funds he believed he was entitled to do so.
Properties described as aparthotels managed by Dylan Lettings Worldwide were not owned by the company, but via leasehold by the 64-year-old himself, either personally or via a series of trusts.
In May 2017, a number of mortgage companies called in personal debts owed by Batra, which a court subsequently ordered him to pay more than £6.5m to settle.
Batra began to transfer funds less than an hour after a receiver was appointed to take control of the company following his failure to make the court-ordered debt payment.
Batra moved £50,000 from the company’s account to his personal account, the maximum amount he thought he was allowed to remove in one day. He then transferred £49,000 to his account the following day and fraudulently took a total of £105,690 across a four-day period.
Dylan Lettings Worldwide, which operated four aparthotels, entered liquidation in October 2017 and was dissolved in October 2019.
Chris Wood, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Batra knew exactly what he was doing when he emptied the company’s bank account. Within an hour of losing control of the business, he began moving money into his own pocket, leaving creditors with nothing.
“This was a deliberate and dishonest act, and the jury saw through his attempts to justify it. This conviction should serve as a warning that we will pursue those who try to cheat creditors out of money they are owed.”
Batra has been banned as a company director until March 2028, after being disqualified for seven years in 2021 following initial Insolvency Service investigations into the fraud.
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