UK customs officers scored a victory in their fight against tax fraud last week when a gang of four fraudsters, including a former United States judge and a music producer, were jailed for a total of 22 years for their part in a £44 million value added tax scam.
For more than two years, the quartet operated a scam which involved the buying of mobile telephones through fictitious companies and using false receipts to charge VAT on the transactions. The gang used forged letterheads and logos from existing UK companies in order to lend legitimacy to their operation. The proceeds were then siphoned off to a series of bank accounts in Hong Kong.
The scam, known as a carousel fraud, allows the same goods to be bought and sold repeatedly through the same companies, and the perpetrators pocket the value added tax which should have been passed on to the government.
The quartet - Stacey Haber-Hofberg, previously an environmental law judge in New York, Stephen Pigott, of Dubai, Theresa Igbanugo, a record label director, and Joanna Harris, a fitness instructor - now face up to seven years in jail.
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