Bashar Issa jailed for film fraud
BANKRUPT property developer Bashar Issa has been jailed for six years and five months for his part in a £2.8m film tax fraud.
Mr Issa, who is now based in London, was behind several property schemes in Manchester. He was chief executive of BS Construction, BS Development and Issa Developments, all of which went into administration in May and July 2008 owing a combined £44.5m to the banks. He was declared bankrupt in 2009.
In Manchester he was responsible for the partially built Issa Quay which is now a 12-storey serviced apartment block on Dale Street and the foundations for a 21-storey residential Sarah Tower on Lena Street, which is now a Premier Inn hotel.
He also put up the steel frame for the mixed-use Sarah Point on Great Ancoats Street. The Homes and Communities Agency is currently working with UK Land and Property to complete the project. Mr Issa also bought the Statler Towers in Buffalo, New York and pledged to build the city’s tallest skyscraper.
He was sentenced today at Southwark Crown Court along with four others for the fraud which was based around claiming film tax credits of £1.3m and £1.4m of VAT for the production of a film with a budget of £19m. HM Revenue & Customs investigators found that work had not been done and most of the suppliers and film studios had never heard of the gang which was operating through a production company called Evolved Pictures.
In a bid to cover their tracks Evolved did shoot a film called A Landscape of Lies, starring Loose Women presenter Andrea McLean, on a fraction of the budget originally proposed.
Born in Kuwait to Iraqi parents, Mr Issa enjoyed a high-rolling lifestyle with connections at the highest level. After the Gulf War he claimed to have spent a week discussing regeneration schemes with the then President Jalal Talabani, and Prime Minister Nouri Al-Malaki. Mr Issa, now going by the name Al-Issa, was jailed along with Aoife Madden, of Northern Ireland, Tariq Hassan, of Essex, Ian Sherwood and Osama Al Baghdady, both of Manchester.
