Fraudsters jailed for £38m ‘missing trader’ scam
A GANG of fraudsters including men from the West Midlands has been jailed for more than four decades in prison for their part in a £38m tax cheat.
Six of the men were convicted following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court, two pleaded guilty prior to trial and a ninth man, who also pleaded guilty, is currently serving six and a half years.
The so-called ‘missing trader’ fraud involved the import of mobile phones and computer parts to manipulate the VAT system.
Baljinder Singh Sandhu, 41, of Whitmoor Park in Coventry, was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy, cheating the public revenue and money laundering. He was found guilty after trial.
His cousin Harnaik Singh Sandhu, 36, of Courthouse Green in Coventry, will be sentenced in the next few weeks on a date to be confirmed.
Iqbal Singh Gandham, 36, of Handsworth Wood in Birmingham, will be sentenced on February 16.
Both admitted their part in the crime before it went to trial.
HMRC said the 2005 fraud was uncovered by its criminal investigators after unravelling a complex conspiracy which involved a chain of companies in the UK and abroad, set up solely for the purpose of stealing money from the UK Government.
Confiscation proceedings are underway and properties worth in excess of £2.5m have been restrained, including a Spanish holiday home.
Two companies, Middlesex-based Sky Computers UK Ltd and Surrey-based Maxro Technology, were at the centre of the plot.
The conspiracy involved the import of mobile phones and computer processing units, predominantly from Dubai via Europe.
Once in the UK, the goods were sold on with VAT added, through a series of companies.
After doing this several times, the products were then exported back to the EU.
The exporter would then claim a VAT credit from HMRC for the tax paid on the purchase of the goods although this was never paid in the first place.
This money would then be siphoned off and laundered through overseas companies in Dubai and Spain and the gang would divide up the profits.
Enquiries were launched when links were identified in an associated investigation, codenamed Operation Elemi, which saw seven men from the Midlands and one from Dubai jailed for nearly 34 years in 2008 and 2009.
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