The company at the heart of the fraud, Winnington Networks Ltd (WNL), deliberately understated how much VAT was owed to HMRC between 2011 and 2014.

Now 19 members of the network have been sentenced at Southwark Crown Court, with many imprisoned for lengthy prison sentences, totalling a combined 70 years in jail, following four trials which ran for several years and were cloaked in reporting restrictions.

The investigation was called Operation Barbados and involved a team of HMRC investigators working closely with

Key evidence was secured by HMRC investigators when WNL’s finance director, Neil Pursell, 60, and key players, were caught conspiring at two hotel meetings held in Manchester and Birmingham in late 2013.

At each meeting, the men openly discussed the fraud; the mechanics and how they could just ‘invent the numbers’ to falsely offset their output VAT claims.

Judge Dafna Spiro described the fraud as ‘complex and highly sophisticated’ with WNL generating VAT by creating price drops on metals and electrical items they sold via a chain of business transactions outside the UK.

After adding VAT back on to items and selling them at competitive rates to real customers in the UK, Winnington set about offsetting the VAT they had created using a classic carousel fraud approach, known as missing trader intra-community (MTIC) fraud.

They did this by falsely claiming they had sold internet airtime through VOIP (voice over internet protocol) services to UK suppliers.

The vast majority of VOIP was fake, but WNL and the co-conspirators recruited people who owned VAT-registered businesses to issue fake documents. In return they were handed a share of the profits of the fraud.

They created multiple fictitious deal chains to make it look genuine and even created two fake offshore banking platforms, said to be based in the Seychelles and Canada, in a bid to produce a convincing set of financial records.

The three-year campaign was estimated to have resulted in £20m of VAT fraud.

A nationwide HMRC and police operation in March 2014, led to the arrest of 15 people, searches of 36 premises, including a property in Cyprus, and the winding up of three companies.

The huge investigation led to four trials at Southwark Crown Court and the conviction of 20 people.

Alexander White, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: ‘Kashaf Bashir, William Lindfield, Assim Rather, Vishal Chudasama, Adeel Karamat Malik, Beverley Thompson and Sarah Jane Peploe were sentenced for playing important roles in stealing and laundering £20m from the UK taxpayer.

‘Together with the other 13 convicted defendants, they helped operate a complex and sophisticated fake system of offsetting VAT payments to HMRC, money which was meant for public services but was instead stolen for their own selfish purposes.

‘The CPS has commenced proceeds of crime proceedings against all of these defendants to claw back this illegally obtained money.’

All 20 people were convicted of or admitted either conspiracy to cheat the public revenue or money laundering offences.

Six members of the gang were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Monday with custodial sentences for two key players. William Lindfield, 63, of Kingston Hill, Cheadle, was jailed for seven years and six months and disqualified from acting as a director of any company for eight years. Vishal Chudasama, 42, of Olney, was jailed for three years at six months. Assim Rather, 43, of Manchester will be sentenced at a later date.

Suspended sentences were given to Kashaf Bashir, 45, of Newcastle, Adeel Malik, 45, of Nottingham, Sarah Peploe, 54, of Cheadle, and Beverley Thompson, 61, of Bathgate, were given suspended sentences of between 21 to 24 months.

Richard Las, director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: ‘This incredibly complex fraud was dismantled thanks to the tenacity, skill and dedication of our criminal investigators.

‘The scale of the sentences and the significant director disqualifications show how seriously the courts have treated this sustained and sophisticated attack on the UK tax system.’

Other members of the gang were jailed in 2024 after three earlier trials, resulting in prison sentences of more than 62 years, which were subject to reporting restrictions.

After the first trial in March 2024, former finance director Pursell, 61, of Stoke, was jailed for nine years and disqualified from acting as a director of any company for 14 years. He was also handed a 19-month Serious Crime Prevention Order (SCPO) which begins when released from prison. Also jailed were William Lindfield, 63, of Cheadle, for seven years and six months, and Vishal Chudasama, 42, of Olney, for three years and six months.