FRAUDSTERS from Redditch were part of an audacious 'high-stakes' criminal conspiracy which hoodwinked NHS hospitals, councils and the Guernsey government out of £12.6 million.

An organised crime network targeted 22 mostly public bodies in a divert fraud. The dirty money was transferred to international accounts and laundered into legitimate businesses.

The bold scheme had the potential to have siphoned off £20 million into accounts which the criminals controlled, mainly at the taxpayers' expense.

Sentencing 10 of those involved at Leicester Crown Court, Judge Philip Head said: "This was a sophisticated and widespread fraud in its conception and execution."

Jailing the conspirators for between 10 years and 22 weeks, he added: "These bodies were selected because it was hoped their accounting processes would be vulnerable."

Cash was extracted by fooling organisations with forged letters, pretending to be from legitimate building firms already carrying out work for the public bodies.

The fraudsters took full advantage of the fact that public sector contracts were freely available to see, under financial transparency rules.

The co-conspirators would write, either by email or fax, claiming to have changed their companies' banking details, and supply instead an account controlled by the criminals.

The "prime-mover", identified in court as Nigerian national Bayo Awonorin, remains at large, having failed to answer to police bail.

After a Lincoln-based NHS hospital first raised the alarm, diligent investigation work by detectives from Lincolnshire Police led them to uncover a 'seamless process' of fraud and money laundering, crossing international borders, through Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Ill-gotten gains were then laundered through 'many layers' of accounts, with the cash funnelled to legitimate businesses, including a children's soft play area development in Scotland and a cafe in Sutton Coldfield.

The conspiracy's tendrils stretched to company accounts in Poland, Dubai and Nigeria, with targets including an airport development run by the States of Guernsey, the Royal College of Arts, and NHS trusts in

Lincolnshire, London, and the north of England.

In total, 10 people were sentenced in connection with the operation, including several from Redditch, namely Abdul Naeem, 36, of Lineholt Close, and Mohammed Nadeem, 33, who were jailed for 67 months each for conspiring to launder the dirty cash.

Abdul Ghaffar, 68, of Lineholt Close, was given a 22-week suspended jail term.

The conspiracy's 'trusted lieutenant' Stephen Tyndale, 47, of Albany Road, Southwark, was jailed for 20 years for conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to launder money.