A five-bedroom mansion once owned by a scammer who defrauded Royal Mail of £70 million has gone up for auction after being seized.
Complete with a detached pool house, the near-£3 million property is the former home of Narinder Sandhu, 62, who used the proceeds of an elaborate postage scam to buy it — along with a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce.
Hadley Grange is in the desirable Jordans Village near Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire – whose famous residents include Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne who recently relocated there from Los Angeles.
The mansion features a home cinema, gym, steam room and large triple garage, and is going under the hammer with a guide price of £2,750,000.
Millions of pounds were pocketed in the decade-long fraud, which involved the under-declaration of mail that was posted through a network of logistics companies in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire from 2005.
Sandhu, owner of Packpost International Ltd and the “architect” of the fraud, pleaded guilty to the offence.
His declared taxable income was about £1 million per year towards the end of the period the fraud was running, a trial at Southwark Crown Court was told last year.
His brother, Parmjeet Sandhu, 56, from Slough, pleaded guilty to a charge of obtaining services dishonestly.
Prosecutor Ellis Sareen said Narinder Sandhu lived with his family at Hadley Grange, a “multimillion-pound mansion”.
His brother Parmjeet did not become as wealthy, but still made “a lot of money”, Mr Sareen added.
“In this case, we will be talking about literal tonnes of mail – thousands of items.
“This has cost Royal Mail about £70 million or a little more. (The defendants) have not pocketed £70 million, but they have benefited.”
By 2016, so many companies were being operated by the group they were “starting to forget” where they were located, Mr Sareen said.
The fraud was discovered only when Royal Mail customers said competitors were offering unrealistic rates.
When investigators became suspicious about the group’s companies, all their mail was diverted and checked, at which point it was found their postings had been “significantly underdeclared,” the prosecutor said.
The mansion is in near Beaconsfield, the most expensive market town in the UK.
“If the area were a borough in London, it would be the third most expensive,” said James Ashworth, partner at Landwood Property Auctions.
The home has been valued at £3 million, but has a lower guide price to reflect the property’s need for some renovation work.
“We’ve priced it at a very sensible level to reflect it’s time for the property to benefit from some modernisation and refurbishment and those with more ambitious plans should still see value,” said Ashworth.
“The property sits on a south-facing plot, extending to almost an acre with open fields beyond the boundary and it offers a huge amount of potential for any buyer, whether it be a little TLC and refurbishment of what is there, or perhaps extension and remodelling to put their own stamp on it, or a replacement dwelling.”
Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne have owned a Grade II listed house in the same village since 1993, but have been living in Los Angeles for decades.
The couple announced their intention to return to Buckinghamshire in 2022, with the Black Sabbath singer saying he was disillusioned with the US.
“Everything’s f****** ridiculous there. I’m fed up with people getting killed every day,” said Ozzy Osborne. They are upgrading their house with accommodations for Ozzy Osborne, following his Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
