back to article VAT fraudsters sentenced to total of 133 years

More than 20 people have been sentenced to a total of 133 years for their part in a series of major mobile phone carousel fraud conspiracies in the UK. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said on Friday that its lawyers had concluded more than seven years of work on three interconnected carousel or “missing trader” VAT …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Ian K
    Thumb Down

    Is this some sort of IQ test?

    From various parts of the article "More than 20 people have been sentenced to a total of 133 years", "Three...were sentenced...to a total of 19 years", "12 people [got] 75 years", "seven men...were handed down prison terms of 39 years".

    If we can figure what sentences individual crims got do we get a T-shirt? (I know, I know, too many degrees of freedom)

  2. Pete Silver badge

    should'a increased the sentences

    Any judge with a sense of humour would've handed out the jail terms and then said "plus an extra 17.5% for VAT"

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    £1 per year

    Each person got around six and a half years in prison, also each person gained on average around six and a half million quid. Not bad, eh?

    Mine's the camelhair coat with the big cheque book in the pocket.

  4. Chris Bradshaw
    Boffin

    re Is this some sort of IQ test?

    I think the point is that the sentences sound worse if you total them up. But if you do the math (and I agree that an average sentence is about all you can get) you come up with gross of £1,037,594 per year in the slammer, which doesn't seem too bad. This is of course assuming they caught all the perps involved and discovered all the crimes, neither of which is very likely...

    It is kind of funny to rate the crime by total prison time, but then maybe the Reg editors are just that little bit more knowledgeable on this subject than us...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What's with the DOBs?

    Just wondering.

    A. Coward 18/01/74

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeah, but now they can claim some back

    Isn't there now a law whereby the rozzers can take back the ill-gotten gains of major criminals? Presumably that's a long-drawn out legal process which starts when the perps get sentenced.

    A million quid per year inside isn't bad, but only if you can hang on to it.

  7. Stuart Halliday
    Happy

    No gain

    Don't forget that part of a criminal sentence is that the crooks will not gain from their crime.

    So from the day the sentence was passed to the day they die, any money they try to spend will be under close watch by various Government depts.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    <Insert witty title here>

    "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,"

    Sounds like any IT scheme implemented by the UK gov.

    Weren´t for the headline, it would have fooled me.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    title no. 457/3

    "...organised fraud on a massive scale perpetrated by criminals all bent on making fast and easy profits at the expense of the British taxpayer..."

    so, completely unlike the taxman himself; who takes roughly a fifth of every penny you earn, adds roughly a fifth onto almost everything you buy - and threatens you with incarceration if you don't cough up

  10. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Alert

    The Govt is jealous

    They thought they were the only ones to rip off the tax payer at this level!

  11. Chris G

    Like wot they said!

    The biggest fraudster at British taxpayers expense?

    Difficult question which will take all of 1/2 a second to think about and then only that long in framing the answer, which is? GovUK

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    biggest fraud

    surely MPs claiming allowances for large high quality housing/furnishing

    a police force that has very clearly been neutered

    selling of public bullion at record low prices (best chancellor evah?)

    closure of hospitals

    privatisation and subsequent collapse of public services

    and multi billion dollar bailouts for people living champagne/porsche lifestyles at the expense of the hard working public

    propping up of a system which encourages the sale of houses at prices not consistent with salaries and lending above affordable rates during a period of unsustainably low interest

    or is it me?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Sounds familiar

    "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," said HMRC director of operations, criminal investigations, Chris Harrison"

    So a bit like our banking system then?

  14. Simon
    Dead Vulture

    we're all victims

    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,"

    You could be talking about the criminals but you could equally be talking about the VAT and Tax man.

    Make one small and easy-to-make mistake and they won't settle for just blood from the stone, they also want your organs plus your balls over a coal fire.

    Tombstone because it may be the only place left to escape the Criminal AND Government greed.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like