The case at the First Tier Tribunal related to 179 transactions between Drinks 4 Less Limited and suppliers involved in an ‘organised crime group’, where eight members were convicted of missing trader fraud and given jail sentences for between six and nine years in 2019.

When the company went into liquidation, Anandpreet Singh Powar was the sole director of Drinks 4 Less.

Before its liquidation on 16 November 2023, HMRC had turned down a claim from the company for a deduction in input tax of £186,694.46 on 3 March 2017. HMRC then issued an assessment for £182,455 against the company on 17 July 2017.

A penalty notice of £83,019.70 was also issued ‘on the basis that the 179 transactions were connected to a fraudulent loss of VAT and that the company knew or should have known of that’.

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