Wendy WilliamsTHE ex-lover of Holby City star Laila Rouass has been jailed for nine years in a £250m VAT fraud.
Nasir Khan, 39, who lived in Gibraltar, was found guilty of allowing criminal gangs to launder money through a string of his companies.
Khan who divided his time between a flat at Atlantic Suites and a six million euro villa in Marbella, ‘deliberately cheated the public purse,’ heard London’s Southwark Crown Court.
The businessman who dated Rouass, also a contestant in Strictly Come Dancing in 2009, managed to amass a fortune of 50m euros and was regularly seen driving luxury sportscars or in his £40,000 yacht moored.
The lynchpin was able to make huge amounts of money in VAT rebates in a clever mobile phone scam.
The son of a Surrey bus driver, he borrowed £2,000 from friends and was named the Bank of England’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year when his mobile phone company The Accessory People took off in the 1990s.
At the age of 29, he was valued at £45million, but as the accessory market declined around 2001, his company began a fraudulent wholesale trade in mobile phones, boosting turnover from £13million in 2002 to £219million in 2003.
The scam involved bogus UK companies buying high value mobile phones in Europe.
The phones were then moved through a number of British firms before being sold back to Europe.
Through a series of rapid transactions, often taking place in less than a day, the fraudsters were able to exploit UK tax laws and claim vast sums in VAT rebates.
Khan used his company and other firms, including Direct Accessories Ltd, to launder the cash.
Michael Parroy QC, prosecuting, said: “The loss of tax revenue ran into millions of pounds and those involved made a lot of money.”
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith said: “Quite why somebody who had been as successful as you would decide to become involved in fraud I very much doubt this court will ever know.
“I suspect the enormous profits which were available in the fraud were too great for you to resist, the figures speak for themselves.”
“Through a series of rapid transactions, often taking place in less than a day, the fraudsters were able to exploit UK tax laws and claim vast sums in VAT rebates.”
Exploiting laws is one thing, breaking them is another. The appetite of the lynch mob has been whetted with details of expensive mansions, yachts, fleets of sports cars and ‘money-laundering’. ‘The Public Purse’, another hackneyed phrase. How many swimming pools would it pay for to be cleaned out, the money. I doubt if one hospital would be built nor one single nurse given a pay rise. Which law did he break? What are/were his criminal acts? We are never given clear information of this. The costs of the prosecution of this case will never be recovered. Here I rest my case.
Mnevis,
are you a VAT fraudster too – this creep broke the law it was fraud pure and simple.
You’ve obviously not heard of the huge international ‘carousel’ scam.
This scam was costing ordinary taxpayers in Europe and Scandinavia over €60 billion per year.
That’s the problem with white collar crime – no real punishment – real mutilation and a one way ticket to Switzerland – watch this type of fraud wither away in no time at all.
The real gainers in all this as always are the greedy scavengers known as lawyers. It is they who have campaigned for years to abolish real deterrent punishment and it worked – they just love repeat offenders = more money for them.
I have never heard of the ‘carousel’ scam. Please explain clearly exactly what it is and how it works.
Mnevis – where have you been.
The name is self explanatory – you buy products (the product itself is irrelevant)you set up false companies (easy to do) and charge VAT/TVA (this tax exists in all EU and many other companies.
You then send the false paperwork to the appropriate government dept and they repay the VAT/TVA which the scammewrs never really paid.
By the time they realise it’s a scam the money is gone and the bank accounts closed down.
These ‘products’ are ‘sold’ on from country to country and in each country they reclaim the VAT/TVA – aka – round and round the carousel goes.
Stuart Crawford: Is that supposed to be an explanation of how it supposedly works. You have explained nothing. Your explanation is as clear as mud. If I buy mobile phones worth £500k the price is £500k plus VAT. In the first place I need one half of one million pounds PLUS VAT. If I export them I am legally entitled to reclaim VAT. There is no limit on how many times these goods can be exported and re-imported. Your explanation is a complete fiction. When one buys goods one does not charge VAT, one pays VAT. If exported the VAT can be reclaimed legally. So, once again please explain this ‘carousel’ so-called scam. If you are unable to do so, if you don’t know, just say. Don’t spout forth with rubbish like ‘ when you buy goods you charge VAT’. When you buy goods you pay VAT.
Mnevis has all the financial know-how to be a Spanish gestor lol. Please explain the concept of a VAT number to him Stuart.
Mnevis please we are not talking about buying in a shop we are talking about business purchases wholesale …. where when you have a vat number the vat you pay is deductable from the vat you charge and the balance is sent to the vat man in a carousel people claim back vat they havnt paid therby commiting vat fraud
Fred/Sam,
pointless trying to explain to Mnevis – he’s not taking his Largactyl – or not enough.
This is disgusting that this man gets 9 years, banks are the biggest crooks/thieves, yet they are existing, oil companies commit genocide for profit yet they are existing prime ministers have commited mass murder yet they are existing, people have lost their homes due to banks yet they are existing, tell me I wonder if this man was a respectable white man if it would have been even noticed, as for cheating people of hospitals/education and so on please schools and hospitals are a joke.
Rita
Research your subject -scores of white individuals are in jail for it -a scam which took off around Stoke – and Mnevis
Vat is reclaimed (and paid by our useless HMRC) on VAt which was never paid – the trade is ficticious wholesale exports and imports being re bought by the seller