Four members of the most The wealthy British family were jailed for exploiting their servants after they were accused of spending more on their pet dog than on one of their employees, the British Telegraph reports.
A Swiss criminal court found 78-year-old Prakash Hinduja and his wife, son and daughter-in-law guilty of exploiting workers and providing unauthorized work, but dismissed the more serious charges of human trafficking.
The defendants were sentenced to between four and four and a half years in prison each. Their lawyers said they would appeal.
Prakash and Kamal Hinduja received sentences of four-and-a-half years each, while their son Ajay and his wife Namrata were sentenced to four years each. The accused did not appear at the court in Geneva.
Fifth defendant – the family's business manager Najib Ziazi – attended the sentencing. He received an 18-month suspended sentence.
The family, which is Britain's richest with a net worth of more than £37 billion, has been accused of trafficking and exploiting workers – mostly illiterate Indians – in their villa in Switzerland.