An Indian-origin woman, working as a mortgage adviser here, has been convicted to 18 months of imprisonment for cheating customers.

40-year-old Shruti Patel, has been charged of duping her clients and using nearly 170,000 pounds to pay for private education of her children and buying a luxury car and threatening to commit suicide if she was reported to the police.

Patel took loans and ran up debts in the names of two of her customers, one of whom was her close friend. She fraudulently used friend's identity to obtain a mortgage, and also opened bank accounts in her customers names.

She was formerly known as Swati Patel but changed her first name by deed poll to Shruti since her arrest.

"An unsuspecting couple, who spoke little English, had trusted Patel to help them get a 74,000 pounds mortgage to buy their council house unaware she had secretly acquired a 28,198 pounds loan in their names, using confidential information they gave her," prosecuting lawyer, Jonathan Eley told the Leicester Crown Court.

Unable to read English, they unwittingly signed loan documents she presented to them in 2006 and when they queried why their repayments were so expensive, Patel fobbed them off with excuses, Eley added.

"In February 2008, a Money Advice Centre employee unraveled the fraud before the couple and phoned Patel, who confessed, but threatened to kill herself if police was informed. She admitted to six frauds," he said.

The offences were committed between December 2004 and April 2006.

"The victims suffered heartache and were worried, as they saw it, by unwarranted demands for money from banks. She obtained loans in their names and left them to pay for them.

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