The Edinburgh University fraudster found guilty and sentenced over multi-million pound scam

A salesman who was found guilty of being part of a £3.3 million fraud against Edinburgh University has been jailed for seven years. 

Aasim Johar, 54, colluded with the university’s former assistant director of estates and buildings, Geoff Turnbull, to mastermind a bogus procurement scheme that operated for ten years between 2005 and 2015. 

During that period, Turnbull ordered deliveries worth thousands of pounds of cleaning materials through Johar’s employers, Universal Solutions (International), that were not needed. 

Johar then collected commission on the “ghost” goods while Turnbull, who has since died, received expensive “promotions” worth £112,010 for his part in the fraud. 

Johar, of Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, was found guilty by a jury at a hearing last month following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh. 

Sineidin Corrins, deputy procurator fiscal for specialist casework at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: “This was a complex and elaborate fraud which cost the University of Edinburgh millions of pounds in misappropriated funds over a period of ten years.  

“The scale and breadth of Aasim Johar and Geoff Turnbull’s elaborate and fraudulent scheme and dishonesty during that period was breath-taking.”

Mr Corrins added: “Their systematic dishonesty caused enormous financial damage to a famous educational institution. But Aasim Johar will now spend a lengthy time in jail for his crimes thanks to the diligent work of skilled COPFS [Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service] prosecutors, working with criminal justice partners to establish the truth and ensure a successful conviction.”  

The jury was told how, in 2005, Johar managed Kent-based Universal Solution’s account with Edinburgh University and formed a business relationship in his role with Turnbull, who was the university’s assistant director of estates and buildings. 

Under the plan, Turnbull regularly placed orders with Johar for quantities of cleaning products which were not required by the university, and which were rarely delivered. 

Johar, who was known to Turnbull as Alan Scott, received an 8 per cent commission on rising sales to the university.

In 2005, annual purchases for goods seemingly purchased by the university came to £47,801. But by 2014-15, the pattern of yearly expenditure had escalated to £853,371. Over a decade, the fraud cost the university a total of £3.3m. 

The court was told that Turnbull resigned in July of 2015 at the same time as several operational changes were conducted by the university. Their scheme then began to unravel following a stocktake and financial check by university officials that identified suspicious transactions with Universal Solutions, which had been overseen by Turnbull. 

Jurors heard evidence that cleaning products at the university were, in fact, supplied by another company, whose annual budget for providing materials was £600,000. However, by 2015, the budget for Universal Solutions had been raised by Turnbull to £1.2m. 

A police search of Turnbull’s home in April 2016 revealed evidence of the “promotions” he had received through companies linked to Johar and Universal Solutions, including gift cards and vouchers for Tesco, Next, Marks & Spencer and Rocco Forte Hotels. They also found iPads, iPhones and Apple watches that had been bought through personnel from Universal Solutions. 

The court was told how Johar directed Turnbull to forward some of the “promotions” on to third parties and others back to himself. Specialist officers from the police cybercrime unit examined Turnbull’s laptop and identified a number of messages to the accused. 

Johar will now be subject to action under Proceeds of Crime legislation to recover the financial benefit he fraudulently obtained.