In this month's roundup of cases and disqualifications, rio sentenced for £1m property VAT repayments scam, fish shop directors battered with five-year bans, phony accountant jailed for stealing £144k in tax
Trio sentenced for £1m property VAT repayments scam
Three fraudsters have been sentenced to a total of 10 years’ in jail after stealing over £1m in VAT repayments for building houses that never existed, while two of the scammers have been sentenced in their absence after absconding.
Jamie Colwell, his father Brian Colwell and Jamie’s ex-partner Briony James claimed to have spent £14m constructing new houses but a HMRC investigation discovered that building had never started. Jamie set up Robert Lloyd Properties Ltd and Belgravia Construction Services (South) Ltd to carry out the VAT fraud. His father, a retired builder, was a director of both companies, while James was a director of Robert Lloyd Properties. Jamie also pretended to be another director, Martin Johnstone.
