A "Mr Fix-It" For Speeding Fines Jailed

A speeding fine ‘Mr Fix-It’ has been jailed after a West Midlands Police probe uncovered a systematic phantom driver scam that’s understood to have helped hundreds of motorists dodge penalty points.

Ramesh Jhalli, from Ventnor Avenue in Hodge Hill, charged up to £200 to take prosecution notices off the hands of speeders and invent bogus drivers to take the rap.

Jhalli claimed his imaginary drivers lived at one of eight addresses across the West Midlands – mainly multi-occupancy properties with communal entrances – and when penalty notices landed in the post he collected them and returned them “not known at this address”.
He admitted helping 10 dodgy drivers avoid fines issued by West Midlands Police.

But it’s believed hundreds more – motorists who’d been prosecuted by police forces across the country – tapped into the con after hearing about his corrupt scheme through Facebook or word-of-mouth.

It’s estimated the 39-year-old pocketed up to £100,000 from the scam between November 2012 and October 2014.

West Midlands Police’s Camera Enforcement Unit launched an enquiry after spotting certain addresses repeatedly being cited as the homes of offenders. 

Flats in Hope Street and Holdgate Road, Birmingham and Lime Grove in Smethwick were collectively cited 59 times within a matter of months on official Notice of Intended prosecution (NIP) forms.

Officers noticed handwriting similarities on the submitted forms, while checks with the DVLA showed signatures on the NIPs bore no resemblance to those kept on Authority systems for the registered keepers of the speeding vehicles.

Dates of birth given for the registered keepers were also wrong on all but one of the forms.

Crucially, the only correct birth date was found on a prosecution sent to Jhalli himself after he was caught speeding in a Ford Transit van on 10 November 2013 on the M6.

It meant Jhalli became the focus of the investigation. 

Suspicions were heightened when officers discovered a woman living in Hope Street’s Wellesbourne Tower – a flat linked to 22 speeding tickets – was Jhalli’s sister-in-law, a link not initially clear as she used her maiden name on tenancy paperwork.

A forensic document examiner found strong links between handwriting on the NIPs and Birmingham City Council benefits applications completed by unemployed Jhalli.

And when police searched his Hodge Hill home on 12 November 2014 they found speeding tickets issued by several police forces – including Nottingham, Staffordshire, West Mercia, Warwickshire and Bedfordshire Police – and a spreadsheet of names and dates of birth he attributed to the ‘drivers’ he’d invented.

Jhalli went on to admit perverting the course of justice and at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday (March 15) was jailed for 18 months.

PC Steve Jevons, from the Camera Enforcement Unit, described the scam as unique and said the jail sentence should act as a stern deterrent for anyone considering lying to avoid speeding fines.

He said: “Jhalli formally admitted fraudulently submitting prosecution paperwork on behalf of 10 drivers… but it’s suspected this was an attempt to pervert the course of justice on a huge scale and that he helped hundreds of motorists avoid fines and penalty points.

“We found no trace of the people nominated as driving at the time of each speeding offence and when we contacted the registered keepers of the vehicles they denied all knowledge of receiving the NIP form in the post.

“However, a couple of the owners got cold feet and reported they’d passed the speeding ticket to someone they’d heard could ‘make it go away’. 

“It seems as though Jhalli’s ‘service’ was well known in an ever-expanding group of friends and associates, plus some of the guilty drivers said they’d learnt of the scam from Facebook posts.

“Our enquiries found he was making very little money from his registered car window tinting business yet his home was elaborately decorated, had a brand new kitchen, plus a double garage extension complete with a gym. We suspect this was funded through his scam.

“People need to realise that lying in a bid to avoid prosecution, and that includes speeding tickets, is a serious offence and can lead to a jail term for perverting the course of justice.”