The girlfriend of a crooked Ilford businessman has been spared jail for her role in a multi-million pound stolen computer racket, after a judge described her as a “needy young woman”.

Radhika Mandalia, 24, of Aldborough Road North, Newbury Park, fell under the influence of Porsche-driving Mohammed Uddin, 38, of Balfour Road, who headed a team who repaired and repackaged stolen Cisco Systems components before selling them on.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds passed through the crooks’ bank accounts as they worked the scam using aliases and various company names to cover their tracks.

When police raided a self storage unit at Hake Commercial in Thames Road, Silvertown in June 2009, they recovered equipment with a list value of more than �1million.

Computer components, worth tens of thousands each, were stolen in a series of raids in London, Paris and Brussels, then “stored, fixed, repackaged and put in fine shape for selling”.

Last month Uddin, who was at the head of the conspiracy, was jailed for six years.

His “sales director” Amir Hussain, 31, was jailed for three years.

Both were convicted of conspiracy to launder criminal property on or before June 10, 2009.

Uddin was also convicted of conspiracy to conceal criminal property in relation to a separate scam involving high-end cameras.

Mandalia was convicted of the same two charges, but Judge Timothy Pontius said there were “exceptional circumstances” which meant she would not go straight to prison.

She was sentenced to 12 months in jail suspended for two years and ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work.