A fraudster on the run from Britain will lose his £90m property empire and his Ferrari, a decide has dominated.
Arif Patel, 57, from Preston, Lancashire, led a gang convicted in 2023 of one of many UK’s greatest carousel tax frauds.
The sock producer, who now lives in Dubai, funded his empire together with his crimes and should now pay again £90,503,211 with the sale of his properties in Preston, London and abroad.
The properties and enterprise premises he owned might be taken off him after a confiscation order was granted by a decide at Chester Crown Courtroom on Thursday.
Carousel fraud includes chains of faux enterprise transactions used to steal VAT repayments.
Items are moved between totally different corporations in a round sample. This creates false export and import information utilized by criminals to assert again massive sums from tax authorities.
Patel’s Ferrari 575 Superamerica may also be offered at an public sale.
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Mohamed Jaffer Ali. Pic: HMRC
His operation stole hundreds of thousands by VAT compensation claims on false exports of cellphones and textiles.
In addition they imported and offered counterfeit garments. These would have been price £50m had they been real.
Patel additionally owned properties in Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
His restrained property belongings might be offered and the cash put again into the general public coffers underneath the order.
Throughout a 14-week trial, Patel and his co-accused, Mohamed Jaffer Ali, 61, of Dubai, had been each discovered responsible of their absence of fraud and cash laundering offences.
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The Ferrari 575 Superamerica. Pic: HMRC
‘Patel lived a lavish life-style on the expense of the law-abiding majority’
Richard Las, director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, mentioned: “Arif Patel lived a lavish lifestyle at the expense of the law-abiding majority, but he will now lose the property empire he amassed from the proceeds of crime.
“Our work by no means stops at conviction. For the final two years, we have labored with police and CPS companions to safe one of many greatest legal confiscations we have ever recovered.”
Mark Winstanley, Assistant Chief Constable, Lancashire Constabulary, said: “Arif Patel was the top of a Preston-based organised crime group liable for inflicting hundreds of thousands of kilos price of losses to a number of corporations.
“His actions, motivated by greed, directly impacted on the taxpayer.”
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The gang imported and offered counterfeit garments as a part of their unlawful scheme. Pic: HMRC
Patel ran his unlawful scheme utilizing Preston-based import/export firm Faisaltex Ltd.
He travelled to Dubai in July 2011 and didn’t return. He was tried in his absence at Chester Crown Courtroom, the place he was discovered responsible of all costs.
Collectively, Patel and Ali had been sentenced of their absence to a complete of 31 years in jail. The UK has a proper extradition treaty with Dubai.
