Fraud: Convictions & sentences - 31 August 2021

Tax fraudster ordered to repay £5.5m

• A North East Engineering company boss who was jailed for eight years for tax fraud has been ordered by the court to pay back around £5.5m within three months or face 10 years in prison
• Company director was found to have pocketed £5,952,339 in VAT, income tax, and National Insurance contributions (NICs)
• The original investigation found that they failed to hand over tax deductions from staff pay packets and used phoney invoices to claim VAT.
• Detective sergeant said: ‘Time and time again we see criminals jailed who believe they can conceal accounts, finances, and luxury items from us.

£1.9m VAT fraudster jailed for five years

• A fraudster who stole nearly £1.9m of taxpayers’ money to fund a lavish lifestyle, including buying three Spanish villas, has been jailed for five and a half years
• Fraudster pleaded guilty to VAT fraud also disqualified from being a company director for 10 years.
• Suspicions were first raised by HMRC officers when Companies House records showed their printing and packaging machinery business was making a profit,
• Confiscation proceedings are underway to recover the stolen money.
• Tax fraud is not a victimless crime as it is stealing from the public purse, which helps fund services like the NHS.

Directors banned for 25 years due to £176k loans

• Peterborough-based mechanics and motor parts suppliers have been banned from running companies for a total of 25 years after the pair provided false documents to secure £176,000 worth of loans
• The directors’ conduct was referred to the Insolvency Service where investigators uncovered that they provided false documents
• The enquiries also established that on at least three separate occasions, directors supplied false documents to secure finance against assets Concorde did not own
• 25 years’ worth of bans is a substantial amount of time to be removed from the corporate arena

Fraudulent companies shut down after abusing £230k Covid-19 loans

• Two companies who fraudulently secured £230,000 worth of Covid-19 support loans have been wound up in the courts
• After the wind-up order was announced an official receiver was appointed as liquidator of the two companies.
• The two companies submitted false documents to at least 41 local authorities and the government’s bounce back loan scheme.
• There is currently a bill before parliament that will give the Insolvency Service extra powers to investigate bounce back loan fraud.

Director jailed for stealing £1.7m

• A company director has been jailed for five years and banned for 12 for stealing £1.7m from the business to fund ‘addiction’ to buying horses
• After sentencing, director said that I found buying horses ‘more addictive than drugs’.
• The company ceased trading in October 2018 but remained live on the Companies House register until August 2020 when it went into liquidation.
• Investigators from asset recovery team continue to make enquiries into any assets that have been gained as a result of director’s criminality.