UK Updates Extradition Laws To Catch Tax Dodgers

by Caroline Maxwell, Tax-News.com, London

18 November 2002

Tax evaders who leave the UK hoping to escape their liabilities will be brought back to stand trial under a new extradition bill published last week.

According to the Home Office, 'quite a large number' of British citizens in trouble with the Inland Revenue or Customs and Excise departments have taken advantage of the UK's outdated extradition laws to flee the country. However, the new legislation introduced on Thursday incorporates the European arrest warrant in British law, meaning that the average time taken to extradite between Britain and the rest of Europe should be cut from eighteen months to just three.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper following the publication of the bill, Home Office Minister, Bob Ainsworth explained that: 'Extradition requests to the UK have trebled since the 1970s. Doing nothing is not an option. Our creaking extradition laws are in need of a radical overhaul.'

He continued: 'Extradition hearings will take place in court, before a British judge, and with the right of appeal. We are retaining the principle that fugitives will only stand trial for the crime they were extradited for.'

According to the Guardian, the bill will come into effect in 2004 if approved by parliament.

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