15 people have been sentenced to an average of six years in prison after being convicted of defrauding the taxpayer of £250 million through mobile phone sales.
The complex scam involved taking phones from the UK and moving them to Europe, before importing them back, thus registering them as free from VAT. The scammers then sold the phones and included VAT in the sale price, but didn't pass on this cash to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
In some cases the fraud became even more complicated, with the same batches handsets passing back and forth between the UK and Europe multiple times through bogus companies, the idea being to claim bogus VAT rebates. The police investigation involved the seizure of 130 hard drives and more than half a million documents.
The fraud took place between 2001 and 2003, sparking off a lengthy legal investigation. The first convictions were made in 2008 but were not allowed to be reported as this could have prejudices other trials, the last of which concluded this week.
The final man convicted, Nasir Khan, had originally run a mobile phone accessories store. Business declined when the craze for accessories faded away, at which point Khan became involved in the fraud.
