Midlands gang in £12m VAT fraud to be sentenced

A GANG of fraudsters based in the West Midlands is to be sentenced later this week after trying to steal £12m in a VAT scam importing vehicles from across Europe.

Jayne Mitchell, 40, a former secretary from North Yorkshire, was sentenced last week to 10 years following an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs and a ten-week trial. Her six co-conspirators – including a father-and-daughter team from Walsall – all pleaed guilty to the charges in September and face sentencing on Friday.

In a case described by the trial judge as a assive and deliberate attack on the UK tax system, Mitchell lived a lavish lifestyle, buying luxury cars and property in Europe.

The gang imported more than 7,000 new vehicles, which they sold on through a complex web of fake companies with a turnover of over £80m in two years.

The cars were imported VAT free, passed through a chain of fake companies, and eventually sold on to unsuspecting car supermarkets and dealerships across the UK, but with many of the fake companies disappearing without paying the VAT due on the sales.

Peter Hollier, Regional Director, Criminal Investigation for HMRC said: “This was a professionally organised, sustained attack on the UK tax system.  This crime group had gone to great lengths to facilitate this fraud; which saw them ‘steal’ more than £12 million from the UK’s economy.  

“This fraud allowed Jayne Mitchell to live a luxurious lifestyle; she bought Ferraris, lavish properties, designer accessories and champagne lunches by stealing £12 million of taxpayers money, money which could pay the annual salaries of around 450 NHS nurses.”

Mitchell and her co-conspirators developed a complicated web of businesses involved in a version of ‘missing trader’ fraud.  They set up fake companies, producing invoices for non-existent transactions and operated a cash network that saw hundreds of thousands of pounds being transferred between the gangs personal and business bank accounts siphoning off the criminal profits.  

The contrived chain of companies turned over £80 million in two years.  One company received more than £65 million in bank credits whilst another raised invoices for over £4 million in just four months.  At the height of the fraud one of the companies imported and sold more than 1,200 cars in just one month.

Sentencing Jayne Mitchell, Judge Durham Hall said: “You had no defence and came forward with fanciful explanations in the face of damning evidence.  This fraud was both brazen and meticulous with ruthless attention to detail.  You manipulated all and any for the pursuit of your own ends.  This was a massive, deliberate and determined attack on the UK VAT system and a gross example of cheating the public revenue.”

The gang included father and daughter Reginald Turner and Tammy Copson from Walsall, Peter Green from Halifax, Russell Bakewell from Cannock, demolition expert Steven Hague from Halifax and Wayne Murden from Walsall.

They were caught after HMRC began investigations into the accounts of a number of the companies controlled by Jayne Mitchell and they were subsequently charged with conspiracy to cheat the public revenue.