UK Carousel Fraudsters Receive Extra 20 Years

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

23 September 2010

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has announced that additional sentences of ten years have been given to two men jailed for their part in a Missing Trader Intra Community fraud, and their failure to comply with the largest ever confiscation order ever secured by HMRC, at GBP184.6m (USD289m).

The two men, Syed Ahmed and Shakeel Ahmad, are both in prison serving prison sentences of seven years. For failing to repay crime profits of GBP92.3m each by the beginning of September, both have been jailed for an additional ten years, HMRC has announced.

Commenting, Richard Meadows, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation for HMRC, said: "This will send the strongest message yet to criminals that they cannot hide, even in prison, from our actions to reclaim their criminal profits. We are determined that this money will be restored to the nation’s finances in what is the largest confiscation order ever secured in the UK. Their prison sentences now total 34 years and they will still have to re-pay the outstanding confiscation order.”

The two men were part of a 21-strong criminal gang who undertook a large scale ‘missing trader’ fraud, involving the manipulation of the value-added tax (VAT) system through the intra-community import and export of computer processing units (CPUs).

The conspiracy involved the import of CPUs mainly from Ireland VAT free. The goods would then be sold on more cheaply, but with VAT added, through a chain of companies each involved in the plot and sham invoices would be issued. Once the goods had been sold on a number of times they would be exported back to the European Union. The exporter would then claim a VAT credit from HMRC for the VAT paid on the purchase of the goods.

The gang would divide the dishonest profits of the fraud and launder them through various bank accounts both in the UK and abroad. The account holders would then withdraw the bulk of the cash and were paid a commission for their dishonest service.

The proceeds were used to buy gold bullion, luxury houses in London, high performance cars, and to build blocks of flats in Dubai.

The final defendant of the 21 strong crime gang was sentenced in June 2010 and ended one of the most complex investigations undertaken by HMRC which included seven trials and retrials. In total the gang were jailed for 74 years.

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