THE governors of the British Institute of Funeral Directors have revoked the licence of an undertaker jailed for fraud.
Sanjay Meghji Shah, 40, of Portland Crescent, Stanmore, has also been thrown out of the institute.
The unanimous decision was made at a meeting of the governors on Sunday after the institute's disciplinary committee ruled that Shah, formerly a director of Asian Funeral Services of Kenton Road, Kenton, had brought the profession of funeral directing into disrepute.
Shah pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to defraud and was jailed for a year by Judge Giles Forrester at the Old Bailey on March 21. He and his brother Bharat, of Colbourn Avenue, Hatch End, had diverted more than £215,400-worth of business from his parent company, family firm W.J Murray and Sons, offering Asian funerals for cash and pocketing £94,000 profits.
BIFD chief executive John Payne said: "Unfortunately, because there is no requirement for statutory registration or licensing of funeral directors in this country, the decisions will not prevent Shah from re-commencing to act as, or to call himself, a funeral director when he is released.
"He will not, however, be entitled to display the institute's logo or use the letters ‘LMBIFD’ after his name."
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