UK Legal Clerk Jailed For Laundering VAT Fraud Proceeds

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

13 June 2006

A senior legal executive employed by a Hampshire (UK)law firm was last week jailed for six years for his role in laundering more than GBP200 million from the proceeds of a complex VAT fraud, following a lengthy investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

His Honour Justice Rivlin last Tuesday sentenced Laurence Peter Ford of law firm Beveridge Gauntlett Solicitors to six years imprisonment after the jury found him guilty of money laundering charges at Southwark Crown Court the previous week.

Passing sentence, Justice Rivlin told Ford:

"The scheme was deliberately and carefully planned and executed to assist men involved in a massive MTIC carousel fraud of between GBP20-30 million. You set up the means to enable the money to be laundered."

Roy Clark, HMRC Director of Criminal Investigations added that

"Mr Ford abused his position of trust to launder the proceeds of organised crime and as such was as guilty of an attack on the UK's taxation system as those who organised and ran the fraud."

Following suspicious activity HM Revenue and Customs investigators examined the origin of large sums of money passing through the law firm's bank account.

An analysis of the financial records identified deposits totalling over GBP250 million between May 2002 and March 2003 moving through the Beveridge Gauntlett account and subsequently Ford was arrested on suspicion of money laundering.

Recommended