£4.5m tax fraud gang receive combined 43-year sentence

An Ukrainian gang which stole more than £4.5 million by making a series of fake tax repayment claims has received jail sentences for a combined 43 years.

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by Nicholas Paler on Jul 05, 2010 at 11:00

£4.5m tax fraud gang receive combined 43-year sentence

An Ukrainian gang which stole more than £4.5 million by making a series of fake tax repayment claims has received jail sentences for a combined 43 years.

HMRC said the 11-strong gang, who used thousands of false identities in order to make the claims, had received sentences ranging from 21 months to six years after a hearing at Southwark Crown Court.

Peter Millroy, assistant director of criminal investigation for HMRC, said the gang had deprived the nation's public services of millions of pounds.

Millroy said: 'HMRC takes fraud extremely seriously. In common with commercial financial organisations, we face attempts by individuals and organised criminals to steal from us and we have processes in place to detect and counter fraudulent repayment claims.'

The gang opened 750 bank accounts and submitted at least 1,600 online self assessment tax returns claiming to be foreign migrant workers who had worked in the UK and been overtaxed.

HMRC said the gang spent the money on fast cars and luxury apartments in London. When the gang's property in West London was searched by HMRC officers in July last year £360,000 in cash was uncovered, along with a stash of weaponry.

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9 comments so far. Why not have your say?

So that's £100k a year or £200K when they're let out at half-time........not bad, eh!.........and tax free!!

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And I bet we don't even send them home when they have completed their sentence. It would probably be against their human rights.

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You can see them enjoying themselves at our expense here !

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1291880/Ukrainian-gang-jailed-4-5m-tax-saw-live-luxury-life-fast-cars-flash-houses.html

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Doesn't HMRC check whether the tax has been paid before refunding it?

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Why is the tax rebate system administered so poorly? It should be standard practice to simply check if the tax has been paid before authorising a refund. Again and again we see senior management at HMRC not performing to minimum standards. It is an absolute disgrace.

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Says a lot about the useless client acceptance checks the banks have in place if 750 bank accounts could have been opened by a 11 strong gang !!

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well what a bunch of nit wits and it stems from the people at the top who it has been revealed that seven of them "earn" over £1 million, nah nobody earns that fiddling bits of paper no matter how brainy they are maybe the computers they operate do, but then put rubbish in a computer and you get rubbish out.

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What has gone wrong with my country? We are constantly being let down by our so called leaders. Can someone explain precisely when our civic dignitaries decided to give up on the rest of us and look after themselves?

We are crying out for strong, fair, decisive leadership by people with sound morals and a sense of public duty.

I have no faith in the current crop of politicians, do you?

Think about it! Do you really? (party activists need not respond)

I am ashamed of some of the things we allow to happen in this country, we are mugs to allow these monkeys over here in the first place.

How disillusioned must our 'War' generation be when they see that their sacrifices were in vain?

We are Lions lead by Donkeys !!!

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Anonymous 4 needed this 'off the record'

Jul 06, 2010 at 01:56

HOW COULD HMRC REFUND TAX OVERPAYMENT WHEN PAYMENT WAS NOT MADE IN THE FIRST PLACE????????? SURELY, THIS SHOULD BE FAIRLY EASY TO CHECK WITH COMPUTER DATABASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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