£57m VAT fraudsters in court

TWO businessmen from Blackpool are due for sentencing today at Preston Crown Court for their part in a sophisticated £57m VAT fraud.

Robert Hulme and Keith Giles were found guilty of cheating the revenue following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court in August.

The men were directors of two Blackpool-based businesses, Illumination Publishing and West Coast Services, which bought and sold large numbers of mobile phones from mainland Europe.

Illumination Publishing went into liquidation in August 2002 having failed to declare or pay VAT on sales of nearly £1.9m.

West Coast Services traded with more than 70 European businesses, most of which were either “hijacked companies” or went missing after making the supplies.

None of the companies involved accounted for the VAT they are said to have charged West Coast which they subsequently  reclaimed in their accounting systems to offset the VAT they should have paid to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

HMRC said Hulme and Giles, acting together with others, defrauded the taxpayer of more than £55m.

“They bought and sold mobile phones in an entirely rigged market whose only purpose was to defraud HM Revenue & Customs of VAT.”

Both men face a confiscation hearing in February.