Rochdale tax fraudster to repay £400k or return to jail
A Rochdale businessman, who pocketed nearly £1.25m from two VAT frauds, has been ordered to repay almost £400,000 or face another four years in jail.
Mubbashir Alam, 42, of Maldon Street, set up eight fake clothing companies in a deliberate attempt to claim false VAT repayments.
He was originally jailed for the fraud in November 2014 and now has to repay the stolen tax within three months or he will return to jail for four years.
Debbie Porter, assistant director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “Alam went to great lengths to distance himself from the fake companies he set up to commit his frauds and stole a substantial sum of public money to line his own pockets.
“HMRC will pursue every avenue to ensure that the UK VAT system is not abused in this way and that we recover all the stolen money to restore it to taxpayers’ funds.”
Alam appeared at Manchester Crown Court on August 1, where it was decided that he had benefited from his crimes by £1,053,586.57 and he was ordered to repay £397,235.94 based on evidence of his assets provided by HMRC investigators.
