Little Wing film scheme fraudsters handed long jail sentences

An accountant has been jailed for nine years, along with two financial advisers who each also received nine-year sentences, for their part in a £100m fraud based on a tax avoidance scheme which sought to exploit film reliefs.

Keith Hayley, an accountant, along with London-based financial advisers Robert Bevan and Anthony Savill, created the scheme which was disguised as a film development venture marketed under the name of Little Wing Films.

More than 275 investors between them deposited £76m. The men told investors that for every £100,000 invested, higher rate taxpayers would get £130,000 in tax repayments from HMRC.

Norman Leighton, an accountant and corporate services provider based in Monaco, helped the trio to create the pretence that more than £250m was being spent on pre-production and development activity, and creating film packages in Monaco. However, HMRC discovered that these packages had cost only £4m and had been created in their London offices.