Fraud: Convictions and sentences
June 2023

£50k bounce back fraud: 6 years disqualification

Mr Ahmed, from Essex, was the sole director of a limited company, trading as a bookkeeper. In July 2020, he applied for a £50,000 bounce-back loan for the company, after claiming that its previous year’s turnover had been £200,000, whereas the actual turnover was less than £40,000.

They also found that three days after the money arrived in the company’s account, Ahmed transferred the full £50,000 to his personal bank account.

He has currently repaid £25,000 to the company’s liquidator, and the remainder will be repaid this month.

Mr Ahmed was handed a six-year disqualification, which began on 13 June 2023.

£50k bounce back fraud: 11 years disqualification

Mr Pinnegar, from West Sussex, applied for a £50,000 loan for his company based in London. He made the application in July 2020, after claiming the estimated turnover for the previous year to be £250,000. Investigators discovered that the company had filed dormant accounts which showed that it had not been actively trading on 1 March 2020 – one of the criteria required to apply for a bounce-back loan.

He transferred almost £38,000 to his personal bank account over six months. And he paid the remaining £12,000 into the bank account of a connected company.

Mr Pinnegar’s 11-year disqualification started on 20 June 2023

Architect loses £10k VAT penalty appeal

An architect has lost a First Tier Tribunal (FTT) appeal against penalties related to false VAT assessments

The appellant, Mr Evans, appealed against a decision issued by HMRC to raise VAT assessments on the basis that they had found ‘evidence of false invoices’.

It also issued penalties totalling £10,340.76 for the 06/14 tax period as HMRC considered that Evan’s actions were a result of ‘deliberate and concealed’ behaviour.

Evans was sole director of Maxxim Residential Design Ltd, which was incorporated on 29 February 2008, and provided architectural services.

Acting as director, Evans submitted repayment returns for the relevant tax periods in question, which totalled £11,179.22 and were submitted on 8 July 2014.

Former soldier avoids jail over £45k VAT fraud

A former soldier who stole £45,000 in fraudulent VAT payments as part of a £1.2m fraud has been spared an immediate prison sentence.

Mr Jones, from Nottingham, skimmed thousands in VAT payments between October 2017 and June 2019, while disposing of waste from recycling and skip-hire companies.

Jones, sole director of NSJ Haulage Limited, managed to steal £45,000 in VAT before falling under HMRC’s radar.

In 2018, Jones applied for a VAT registration number and was allocated two numbers, however, he never submitted a VAT return.

He then issued various invoices under his and his brother’s name and used a company called Saints and Sinners, which had a hijacked company number.

In total, £1.2m was paid into his bank accounts, with £216,000 of unpaid VAT, of which HMRC calculated he owed £45,730.

Accountant loses £19k CJRS appeal

An accountant has lost an appeal at the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) related to overpayment of Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) payments

The appellant, Nazrul Islam, appealed against an assessment issued by HMRC for £19,981.47 for the tax year ending 5 April 2021 related to payments made under CJRS.

Employees could only claim the CJRS for furloughed employees for whom HMRC received PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) in the form of a full payment submission (FPS) by specific dates.

Islam was the director of Top-Notch Accountants Limited, which was incorporated on 5 January 2017 and provided accounting and auditing services, bookkeeping, and tax consultancy.

The employee in question was appointed as an account manager on 20 December 2019. He was later reappointed as company secretary on 22 March 2020 in addition to that role.

Islam made claims for support payments covering that period from 23 March 2020, and the claims were paid.

Accounts admin sentenced for £60k fraud

An accounts administrator who stole more than £60,000 from a sewage company has been handed a two-year suspended sentence for fraud

Tracey Carr from Armagh stole a total of £62,678 from Glenvale Waste Ltd between May 2021 and September 2022.

Carr, who worked for the company as an accounts administrator, made 142 fraudulent transactions – which she disguised by attributing her bank details to the company’s pension fund.

Clothing boss jailed for £97m VAT fraud

Two men involved in one of the UK’s largest carousel VAT frauds have been sentenced to a combined total of 31 years in jail

Sock manufacturer Arif Patel was sentenced to 20 years, while co-accused Mohamed Jaffar Ali was also sentenced to 11 years in jail, although both have gone missing.

The pair were involved in one of the UK’s largest ever carousel tax frauds totalling more than £97m through VAT repayment claims on false exports of textiles and mobile phones.

They also imported and sold counterfeit clothes that would have been worth at least £50m, had they been genuine. The proceeds were used to buy property across Preston and London through offshore bank accounts.

Fake companies caught in £500k covid loan fraud

More than 10 sham companies that fraudulently claimed over £500,000 in bounce back loans have been shut down by the Insolvency Service

Between them, the 11 companies claimed £500,000 through the Covid-19 support scheme, despite the Insolvency Service failing to identify trading premises for any of the businesses.

Nine of the companies claimed the maximum amount available – being £50,000 – through the scheme, with one company even claiming two loans.

Investigators also found links between the companies involved, including the use of common addresses, and the transfer of funds between them to entities registered in Hong Kong. The majority of them were involved in the wholesale trade.

The businesses were identified due to their affiliation to five other companies that had previously been wound up by the Insolvency Service in 2021 and 2022.

These had themselves been responsible for fraudulently claiming £250,000 between them in bounce back loans and £350,000 in small business grants.

Of the 11 companies involved, Laslett Limited and JP Capital Management each shared the same address and director, Graham Mark Bowran – both were incorporated on 21 November 2018.