A CLUNE Park landlord is today facing a catalogue of serious criminal charges involving allegations of housing benefit and cheque fraud said to total tens of thousands of pounds.

Rajinder Samrai is accused of having documents falsified in order to accumulate cash for several ‘uninhabitable’ properties which were lying empty at the Port Glasgow scheme.

The Kilmacolm-based businessman is also charged with an alleged attempted fraud involving a house in the town’s Slaemuir Avenue that he is said to have neither owned or managed.

Prosecutors say that Samrai, 40, submitted leases and other documentation to Inverclyde Council pretending that he had tenants residing in his Clune Park flats.

It is claimed that he also paid people to sign official papers stating that they were living in the properties so that he could claim benefit payments on their behalf directly from the local authority.

Samrai has been named on a total of 13 lengthy charges which were called yesterday at Greenock Sheriff Court and are expected to generate TWENTY-THOUSAND pages of evidence.

Two other men — Charles McHaffie, 45, and Craig McIntyre, 40 — appear on five and one of the charges respectively.

The fraud allegations cover a period of time spanning more than five years between 28 February 2009 and 19 May 2014.

Samrai’s defence lawyer Jackie Jobson told Sheriff Ian Fleming that her client denies all of the charges against him.

Solicitor Ms Jobson said: “There is no legal aid in this case and we are currently not in funds.

“Thousands of pages of disclosure are involved here and the defence is not yet prepared.” The Crown says the names of bogus individual tenants were used by Samrai for multiple numbers of flats during the course of the alleged scam.

And more than one person’s name is claimed to have been used on fraudulent documents during overlapping time periods for single properties.

One charge alleges that Samrai used the name of a man who did not live in Inverclyde to swindle benefit payments out of the council for two flats.

A total of 15 Port properties — located at Clune Park Street, Highholm Street, Maxwell Street, Robert Street, Slaemuir Avenue and Bruce Street in Port Glasgow, and also Nile Street in Greenock — are detailed in the charges.

Samrai, of Myreton Avenue, Kilmacolm, is further charged with carrying out 11 cheque frauds between 28 February 2009 and 11 December 2013.

The Crown says that he arranged for the proceeds of cheques that were payable to other people to be transferred directly into his own bank account.

A lawyer for co-accused McIntyre, of Dykeneuk Road, Port Glasgow, told the court: “Some 10,000 pages have been disclosed by the Crown so far and we expect a further 10,000.” Aidan Gallagher, representing McHaffie, of the Port’s Maxwell Street, said: “I have a production schedule which runs to some eight to 10 pages and we await a further schedule of what is still to be disclosed.” Prosecutor Lindy Scaife urged a further intermediate court date in order for full disclosure of evidence to be made to the defence agents.

Ms Scaife confirmed: “Half has been completed thus far.” The amount of money which is alleged to have been obtained by fraud totals £25,713.

The case against all three accused is due to call again on 16 June.

A trial is expected to commence in August.