MORE THAN 27 YEARS FOR VAT FRAUDSTERS

27 May 2002 09:13 AM

Six men have been jailed for evading £10.6 million of VAT:

Andreas DEMETRIOU (38) of 16 Percy Road, Winchmore Hill, N21 pleaded guilty in July 2000 and was sentenced to 4 years at The Old Bailey on 11 September 2000.

Andrew NICOLAS (40) of 1 Banksmead, Duxforde, Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty in July 2000 and was sentenced to 4 years at The Old Bailey on 11 September 2000.

Christos NICOLAS (37) of 41 Moorfield Road, Duxforde, Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty in July 2000 and was sentenced to 3 years and six months at The Old Bailey on 11 September 2000.

Michael YIANNAKAS (40) of 24 Mount Pleasant, Barnet, Hertfordshire was found guilty in November 2001 and was sentenced to 6 years at Woolwich Crown Court on 8 November 2001.

Atilla KANSARAN (40) of 26 Chester Road, Chigwell was found guilty in November 2001 and was sentenced to 4 years at Woolwich Crown Court on 8 November 2001.

A sixth man who cannot be named for legal reasons was also found guilty in November 2001 and sentenced to 6 years at Woolwich Crown Court on 8 November 2001.

The men were involved in VAT missing trader fraud from May 1997 to June 1998. The fraud involved the sourcing of mobile phones from Europe on a VAT free basis which were subsequently sold in the UK without accounting for the VAT charged to the customers.

In this period, in excess of 250,000 mobile phones worth over £80 million were sold. The vast majority of these were sold into the UK market by a company called Universal Cellular Communications (UCC) based at 460 Holloway Road, London, N7. All of those found guilty worked for Universal which is now in receivership.

During the course of the Customs investigation into the VAT fraud, evidence was uncovered of a suspected attempt to pervert the course of justice.

All the above with the exception of KANSARAN were also sentenced in separate trials on charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Details of these and convictions of others for the same offence are being released today by the Metropolitan Police. Amongst those sentenced in these trials is a clerical support officer who had worked in Customs & Excise. Details of his activities and those of co-conspirators were passed immediately to the Metropolitan Police by Customs.

Notes to Editors:

1. Until today, reporting restrictions were in force in all these cases.

2. VAT missing trader fraud is where the fraudsters obtain VAT registration to acquire goods VAT free from other Member States. They then sell on the goods at VAT inclusive prices and disappear without paying over the VAT paid by their customers to the tax authorities.

3. Customs have deployed 340 staff to tackle this type of fraud and aim to have halved fraud losses by 2003-04.

4. The government set out in Tackling Indirect Tax Fraud, published in November 2001, its plans and proposals to tackle VAT missing trader fraud.

Issued by Customs and Excise, Communications Division

For further information, please contact:

Steve Hallworth Robert Buxton Nadine Smith Out-of-hours 020 7865 5095 020 7865 5010 020 7865 5715 020 7620 1313
press.office@hmce.gsi.gov.uk

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