Four convicted fraudsters involved in a vast mobile phone VAT fraud have been ordered to repay more than £110 million in criminal profits.
An 18-strong gang spread across the UK and Spain claimed to be importing and selling mobile phones.
But HMRC investigators found the phones were non-existent and the whole business was a sham to put in fake VAT repayment claims.
The gang had made complex arrangements to hide their criminal profits, laundering cash through bank accounts in Andorra, Dubai, Hong Kong, USA, Switzerland, Portugal and the UK.
As part of the investigation and recovery of the stolen tax HMRC and CPS retained assets and £300,000 in cash.
The key organisers of the fraud, father and son team Geoffrey and Gareth Johnson, are on the run from police.
Both absconded before their trial started.
International arrest warrants have been issued against the pair and they have been ordered to repay more than £109 million.
Co-conspirator, Sarah Panitzke, 42, of Barcelona, Spain, was ordered to repay over £2.4 million or serve more time in jail.
Panitzke is also on the run.
Alison Shelton, 43, of Staffordshire, who is currently serving a nine-year jail sentence for her part in the fraud, was ordered to repay £83,000.
The investigation by HMRC led to four criminal trials between 2012 and 2014.
The 18 gang members were jailed for a total of 135 years.
Kevin Newe, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “Confiscation orders totalling more than £114 million have now been made in this case, and these latest rulings show that criminals may think they can escape justice by fleeing the country, but our investigations to reclaim their ill-gotten gains continue.
“We are determined that crime gangs such as this one, should be prosecuted and then made to repay their criminal profits.”
Nick Price, Head of CPS Proceeds of Crime, said: “Today’s orders again illustrate that the CPS will work closely and tenaciously with our criminal justice partners to go after the assets of those who engage in large-scale fraud, and even in the case of those who wilfully abscond from the proceedings.”
