VAT fraudsters jailed for stealing £2.6m

A chartered accountant and three accomplices have been sentenced to a total of seven years for stealing £2.6m in VAT by creating numerous bogus travel companies to make false repayment claims.

West Midlands-based Parmjit Singh Rana set up 19 fake travel businesses across the UK, which were operated by his co-defendants – Graham Albert Scriven, Amrit Singh Mangat and Ajmer Kooner Singh - who helped launder the criminal profits from the fraud.

Sentencing was passed at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday. HM Revenue & Customs is pursuing a confiscation order, meanwhile assets of £2.75m have been restrained.

HMRC’s criminal investigators discovered that Rana created the fake travel companies and instructed his co-defendants to set up bank accounts, which were used by them to reclaim VAT on zero-rated travel services. They would then withdraw the repayments credited by HMRC in cash.

‘This was a calculated plot by a man in a position of trust who deprived the nation’s public services of millions,’ said Adrian Farley, assistant director of criminal investigation for HMRC. ‘We are determined to take the strongest possible action against professionals who direct organised criminal activity and will now work to reclaim the proceeds of this crime.’

Rana has also been disqualified from being a company director for 10 years.