Kuala Lumpur: A London-based businessman, who forged his dead mother’s will to falsely obtain his family’s £40 million (RM220 million) share in a Malaysian palm oil plantation, was sentenced to five-and-half years in prison after being convicted over the fraud.
The Daily Mail Online reported that Girish Dahyabhai Patel, 71, received the sentence from the Southwark Crown Court in London on Friday.
The report said that Girish was privately prosecuted by his nephew, Prashant Patel, the son of the defendant’s eldest brother, Rajnikant Patel, an Australian resident.
Girish was also disqualified from being a director for 10 years after pleading guilty to counts of fraud, forgery, perverting the course of justice, and perjury between 2013 and 2015. The dispute was over the family’s stake in over 20,000 acres of land in Sabah, fully planted with oil palm, under Aumkar Plantations Sdn Bhd.
Aumkar Plantations was described as a family-held company with diversified interest that commenced its operations in 1978 and has a market capitalisation of over RM850 million.
In 2011, Girish used a fake document to launch a High Court claim for control of his mother Prabhavati Dahyabhai Patel’s estate after she left her entire fortune to his elder brother, Yashwant Patel, following her death that year.
The inheritance included a one-third stake in Aumkar Plantations.
The Daily Mail Online said Girish forged the will using a blank document his mother previously signed and claiming it was created in 2005.
With the conviction, Girish was forced to relinquish his claim to an interest in Aumkar Plantations and gave up his shares in another company as part of a settlement with the family.
He was one of four brothers involved in the family’s business interests, which were spread around the world, including in England, the United States (US), Malaysia, Australia and Singapore.
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