Man sentenced to six years for stealing £2.4 million from companies owning rights to Deep Purple hits

A man who defrauded two companies who owned the rights to rock band Deep Purple’s catalogue of hits out of over £2.4 million was this week sentenced to six years and four months in jail.

Dipak Shanker Rao, 71, from Worcester Park, Surrey, pleaded guilty at Guildford Crown Court to fraud by abuse of position and of laundering the proceeds of the fraud.

Rao was a director of two established and family-run companies, HEC Enterprises and Deep Purple Overseas Ltd, who owned the copyright to the music of high profile bands including Deep Purple.

Rao ran the companies on a day to day basis on behalf of shareholders. However, over seven years, he was transferring company funds into his personal account, claiming later that they were loans to invest that he would then pay back. Surrey Police’s investigation found that for majority of these Rao had attempted to conceal the transfers and had not recorded them in the company records. In addition, Rao claimed he was tricked by ‘boiler room’ fraudsters when he invested the funds, and reported the crime to Action Fraud, a claim which was found to be bogus.

When two original company directors died, their stakes in the businesses passed to their children, who hired a new accountant to audit the companies' books. It was at this point that Rao’s suspicious business practices and abuse of the trust placed in him were finally uncovered. Rao’s crimes directly led to the collapse of both companies.

Investigating officer Detective Constable Rebecca Mason, from Surrey Police’s Economic Crime Unit said:

“This is a case of out-and-out dishonesty and someone blatantly abusing the trust placed in them. Just because someone wears a suit and hides their crimes behind the facade of an official sounding job, it doesn’t make them any less of a criminal.

“Dipak Rao, who was perceived as a friend to the late directors, worked for these companies for 20 years. He abused his position and hid his crime for over seven years. Through careful financial analysis it was uncovered that Rao had been gradually removing funds from the companies’ accounts for his own personal use for the duration of this time, only ceasing his activity when questions were raised by the relatives of the former directors. As a result of Rao’s actions both companies now no longer exist and the victims are left dealing with the financial consequences - and the consequences to their families' reputations - of what he did.

“The directors of these two businesses have suffered a huge amount of emotional distress throughout all of this, and I hope that today’s sentencing will give them some closure.”