Richard Williams, a self-styled U-boat captain who funded a fantasy life through a £1m VAT fraud based on three fake companies, has been jailed for more than four years
Manchester crown court heard that Williams spent £50,000 turning a canal narrowboat into a replica German Second World War submarine with torpedo tubes and a periscope.
The funds came from a five year fraud involving three non-existent businesses which allegedly sold disability equipment including adapted beds. Williams has now been given a jail sentence of four years and eight months, while his ex-wife Laurel Howarth was jailed for 20 months for her part in the creation of fake invoices used to claim a total of £1,017,505 in VAT repayments.
The judge in the case told Williams: 'This was serious offending. It was carefully thought out, organised and planned over a long period of time. All the indications are that the money was squandered.
'You created three false businesses and there was no substance to them whatsoever. You submitted false invoice to HMRC with a view to dishonestly reclaiming VAT.'
During the trial it emerged that Williams’s fraud was detected as a result of an HMRC investigation, which saw officers raiding his ‘submarine’ while it was moored near the Royal Armouries in Leeds.
