A fraudster has been jailed for helping to scam medical companies out of millions of pounds through bogus personal protective equipment (PPE) deals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Craig Morris, 43, and Jogesh Bhandari, 60, bought luxury cars, holidays and a new home after pretending they could supply millions of boxes of nitrile gloves in the US and Germany.

They were convicted of two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation as well as concealing and transferring criminal property at Leicester Crown Court in July.

On Wednesday, Morris received three years and nine months in prison. Jogesh, of Mitchell Drive, Loughborough, Leicestershire, will be sentenced later.

Jogesh told his counsel he was taking a “very extreme painkiller” after having a pacemaker fitted last week and was not able to travel to Northampton, where the sentencing hearing took place.

His wife, former pharmacist Meenakashi Bhandari, 58, also of Mitchell Drive, did attend the sentencing hearing.

She was found guilty of concealing and transferring criminal property. She was given a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, 250 hours of unpaid work and 15 days of rehabilitation activity.

Judge William Harbage KC said there was “no medical evidence” to properly explain Jogesh’s absence and said a bench warrant would be issued. He is expected to be sentenced on 16 October.

Prosecutor Michael Bisgrove told the court Jogesh was the “driving force and the instigator” of the offending, while Morris, of Forest Drive in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, was “very much working for him”.

He said: “The offences took place during the Covid-19 pandemic at a time when there was a desperate shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE).

“In that shortage, the offenders, particularly Mr Bhandari and Mr Morris, saw the opportunity to make money by fraud.”

The court heard that Jogesh and Morris made fraudulent deals under a company called Banton.

“They pretended to be big players in the PPE market. They pretended to have PPE for sale and to be able to buy vast amounts of it,” Bisgrove added.

The court heard they defrauded US company Med18 and German firm MedTech by sending contracts for equipment they did not have.

Bisgrove said: “In the course of the fraud, they took millions of pounds which they used for their own benefit to buy cars, luxury goods and property.”

The court heard the Bhandaris also used the money to pay off family debt, while Morris bought a house, the court heard.

The value of money Jogesh obtained and kept in the course of the fraud was £1.75 million, and Meenakshi laundered money to the value of £960,000, the court heard.

Morris had been receiving regular £5,000 payments from Jogesh before the two men fell out at the end of 2021, the National Crime Agency (NCA) previously said.

The agency said Jogesh worked with Frank Labruzzo, an attorney in the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, who provided a fraudulent escrow service – a bank account which holds funds until pre-arranged conditions are met.

The court heard that Labruzzo and another person involved have been convicted and sentenced in the US.

Sentencing Morris and Meenakshi, Judge Harbage said the pandemic was a time when “all of us had to make sacrifices and pull together for the good of society as a whole”.

He added: “There were a few people though who sought to exploit that to make money for themselves, motivated by greed.

“I’m satisfied Jogesh Bhandari and Craig Morris fall into that category.”

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