Conmen jailed after £17m ‘missing trader’ VAT fraud
A GANG of three VAT fraudsters – two of whom are from the West Midlands – have been jailed for a total six years for stealing and laundering £17m in a ‘missing trader’ operation.
The sentencing yesterday follows the sentencing of six other gang members in related cases in December.
Karnail Singh Samra, 59, from Sutton Coldfield, was sentenced to 18 months for money laundering contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
He received an additional 12 months, to run consecutively, for 26 separate counts of Contempt of Court, by failing to declare and removing cash of £225,000 from the UK to India.
Samra laundered more than £800,000 of criminal proceeds through bank accounts in the UK, India and Spain.
He is the father of Harbinder Singh Samra, one of the principal fraudsters previously sentenced to five years and nine months in jail.
Mandish Singh Hayre, 55, of Solihull, was sentenced to 15 months for money laundering contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Hayre, right, laundered more than £600,000 of criminal proceeds through bank accounts in the UK and abroad.
He is the father of Ardip Singh Hayre, one of the principal fraudsters previously sentenced to two years and 10 months.
The third man was Diljan Saggar, 46, from Slough, who was sentenced to two years and three months on charges of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue.
Criminal investigators from HMRC smashed the multi-million pound fraud which involved pretending to import and export mobile phone products.
HMRC said evidence showed the goods never existed and the paperwork used to demonstrate trading was generated by a computer program devised for these purposes.
It added that officers identified and stopped fraudulent VAT claims already made to HMRC worth £5m and found data on CD Roms showing the gang intended to steal an additional £300m.
HMRC said the gang used the proceeds of their crime to purchase several UK properties worth over £1m each, a Rolls Royce Phantom for £250,000 and a Ferrari for £165,000.
Reporting restrictions had been in place throughout the trial at Southwark Crown Court before being lifted yesterday.
A further trial is set to take place later this year, subject to full reporting restrictions, for a further seven defendants.
