Friday, April 08, 2011, 09:20

By court reporter at birmingham crown court

http://www.thisissuttoncoldfield.co.uk/news/Gang-s-163-60-million-money-laundering-plot-led-trials/article-3423947-detail/article.html

DETAILS of a £60m money laundering plot involving a Sutton Coldfield man can be revealed after the final member of a 17-strong gang was jailed.

The latest sentencing on Tuesday follows five trials and a nine-year investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) into a complex web of international VAT fraud.

It means that reporting restrictions imposed at each trial have now been lifted, shedding light for the first time on the extent of the gang's sophisticated scam.

Among the gang was Philip Leslie Harris, aged 65, of Ferndale Road, Sutton.

He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in August 2006.

He was arrested in one of HMRC's biggest ever operations in which 200 officers targeted business and private addresses, charging the 17 with offences which eventually saw them jailed for a total of 59 years.

Known as 'missing trader' fraud, the scam involved importing high value mobile phones and computer chips from EU countries, free of VAT. They were then sold in the UK with VAT attached, with the criminals then disappearing with the collected tax instead of handing it over to HMRC.

During the trials, it emerged that the gang had set up numerous false VAT-registered businesses and bogus bank accounts, the latter facilitated by an employee of Barclays Bank, who was jailed in 2006.

A customs officer was also involved.

More than £60 million in VAT was fraudulently evaded and the laundered proceeds meant a luxury lifestyle for members, including ringside seats for the world title fight between Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis in America, in 2002.

HMRC followed a trail which led throughout the UK, Ireland, Holland, Belgium and Germany.

Sutton man Harris ran two businesses with a co-defendant, laundering through their companies more than £5m generated by others including Prestige Trading Worldwide Ltd.

Philip Wharam, aged 52, of Roundwood Hall, Horley, Surrey, was Prestige's director.

He was jailed for six years in September 2005, having evaded VAT of £27m.

Harris pleaded guilty to money laundering offences and, in addition to his prison sentence, was disqualified from being a company director for 10 years.

The web was publicly untangled at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday when Kuldip Singh Sander, aged 50, of Perry Barr, became the final gang member to be jailed.

The prolific horse racing gambler was imprisoned for seven years for his pivotal role in the fraud operation in which he oversaw its money laundering arm.

The court stipulated his full address cannot be revealed.

Adrian Farley, assistant director for HMRC said: "This was not some kind of victimless crime, but organised fraud on a massive scale perpetrated by criminals all bent on making fast and easy profits at the expense of the British taxpayer.

"This was theft of revenue needed to fund our country's public services but instead it fuelled their elaborate lifestyles.

'Missing trader' fraud is not merely a paper fraud but often features links to other forms of criminal activity, such as drug smuggling and violent crime."