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World Cambridge Student Paid ‘guru’ £25,000

Tejwant Singh

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Cambridge Student paid ‘Guru’ £25,000

Cambridge student paid ?guru? £25,000 Express & Star

Wednesday 31st March 2010, 11:30AM BST.




A Cambridge University student paid £25,000 to a faith healer and had 100 per cent satisfaction, the jury at his trial heard.


Judge Jonathan Gosling started his summing up the case of Niem Mohammed yesterday afternoon.


He is accused of conning people out of thousands of pounds by promising to improve their lives with his spiritual gifts and prayers.


Wolverhampton Crown Court heard Mohammed, aged 41, believed he had a gift for healing passed down through generations.


Judge Gosling told the jury to put aside scepticism about faith healing to reach their verdict.


As his defence case came to an end Cambridge University research scholar Satinder Paal Gill told the court Mohammed was “honest and true”.


She said since she first encountered him in 2005 she has paid out around £25,000 to him, for help with work and personal problems.


She said: “Whenever he’s said his is going to do something he’s done it. I’ve had 100 per cent satisfaction.”


Witness <Name private>, a telecoms manager from Manchester, also told the court that he had turned to Mohammed for help after losing his job and splitting from his wife.


He said: “In May my name was pulled out of the hat for redundancy. I was told I’d never work in management again. By July I had my job back, with more responsibilities than before. I had paid him £8,000.”


Prosecuting, Mr Barry Berlin called Mohammed “utterly repugnant”, duping his clients into handing over the cash by giving 100 per cent guarantees of success.


He said: “He worked at Lord Corrigan’s Coney Island in Scarborough where the motto is ‘Fun For Everyone’.


“He graduated from the chalets in Scarborough, the chalet in the north west, the chalet on Brighton Pier.


“He is a confidence trickster of the worst type. He preys on the desperate and vulnerable. This is nothing to do with sitting in a chalet having someone cross their hand with silver. His adverts are for the desperate. This is utterly repugnant.”


But in defence, Mr Benjamin Myers told the court: “For many of us a case like this exposes us to beliefs and cultural values that we are not familiar with, it doesn’t mean that it is right to dismiss them as ridiculous. Faith healing is a business as well as a calling, and it can be intensely commercial. The witnesses in this case expected to pay and they chose to do so.”


Mohammed, of Altrincham Road, Cheshire, denies 15 charges of fraud, blackmail, obtaining property by deception and procuring the execution of valuable security by deception.
 
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