29.07.16 HMRC wins tax fraud case for £6.9 million

HM Revenue and Customs (‘HMRC’) have concluded a two-year long investigation into the fraudulent withholding of tax, National Insurance Contributions and Construction Industry Scheme (‘CIS’) deductions carried out by two business men and an employee of a construction company in Kent.

On 21st July 2016 Victor Shearer, 43 construction services company director, and Christopher Azzopardi, 36 a payroll administrator, were both convicted of cheating HMRC out of millions of pounds and will be sentenced on three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud. The third defendant, 60-year-old accountant, Aquil Ahmed, pled guilty to his part in the fraud on the first day of the trial.

Together they operated an intricate web of UK-based companies and bank accounts through which they invoiced clients for their workers’ wages, income tax and VAT but then failed to pass the tax deductions over to HMRC.

From 2010 to 2012 Ahmed’s umbrella companies withheld around £7m in PAYE, National Insurance Contributions, CIS deductions and VAT.  The money was then laundered through a series of bank accounts set up for the purpose in Gibraltar and Belize. Following that, it was transferred to bank accounts held in various countries including, Switzerland, Dubai and Chile. The proceeds were shared out between all three parties.

Chris Gill, Assistant Director of the Fraud Investigation Service (HMRC) commented on the case;

“…This investigation shows that regardless of the resources of those involved, no one is beyond our reach.”