Hull Graduate accused of Stealing £600,000 from Heinz

University of Hull graduate Karan Chopra, aged 30, of Slough, has been accused of stealing over £600,000 from foods company Heinz after working at the firm for less than a year.

Mr Chopra has been sued by the company for damages and the return of £648,000 after he allegedly stole it off them through bogus customer accounts.

He had joined the food manufacturer at aged 27 as a commercial analyst four years after he graduated from the University of Hull in business and finance.

His role was to increase sales by making deals with wholesale customers, sometimes offering them rebates if they bought enough of a certain product.

But he allegedly conspired with India-based Rohit Jain, who he nicknamed ‘Mr Reliable’, to set up a string of fake companies through which to divert funds.

It has been claimed that he entered into the scheme just a few weeks into his job with Heinz.

They allegedly created a system to pay themselves cash which should have been paid to Heinz by exploiting their knowledge of its processing and payments system.

A claim form also alleges that Mr Chopra continued to receive money that was meant for Heinz even after leaving the firm.

Mr Chopra and Mr Jain allegedly set up four fake companies to claim rebates they were not entitled to.

The Hull graduate, who went on to work for Nestle as a commercial finance analyst, supposedly misappropriated a total of £648,269.74 through “deceit, unlawful means conspiracy, and breach of contract”.

Heinz is suing him for the return of the money as well as damages. They also say he purposely inflicted harm on the company through his unlawful acts.

Mr Chopra joined Heinz in December 2016 and it is claimed that weeks later, he emailed Mr Jain who worked at Genpact.

He asked to set up a new customer account for Country Fare Foodservice Ltd and provided his own bank details with Lloyds, through which Heinz paid his salary.

The court is set to hear that he forged an email trail and was subsequently paid an initial £6,800, followed by a duplicate payment of £6,800. This was followed by two separate payments of £16,100.

Having obtained the money, Mr Chopra appeared to become encouraged and later received £59,400 and £66,900. This was allegedly followed by sums of £69,060 and £34,649.76.

Heinz has also accused Mr Chopra of setting up customer accounts in the names of Bidfood Direct, allegedly doctoring documents so that money would be sent to an accessible email account.

In the claim, filed at the High Court, it explained that he helped himself to payments which had a total of over £250,000.

Before leaving the firm in October 2017, he allegedly made an agreement with Mr Jain to misappropriate money and conceal their actions.

They used bogus invoices so that the money was paid through Genpact to bank accounts which Mr Chopra could access.

There is no assumption that Genpact was aware of the alleged actions of the two men.

In May 2018, Mr Chopra was believed to have opened a State Bank of India account, which he used to pay Mr Jain approximately £11,848.

Mr Jain set up new customer accounts with Heinz in the names of former customers and paid £53,460 to a Metro Bank account, which Mr Chopra could access.

Shortly after, Mr Chopra allegedly sent his accomplice an email in Hindi which translated to “more to follow”.

Heinz has accused Mr Chopra of acting “in flagrant and cynical disregard for its right” and is seeking damages from him, as well as repayment of the stolen funds.

According to The Telegraph, Mr Chopra is expected to deny the accusations against him.