A British film director who made the UK's first 3D movie - has been found guilty of a £1.5m VAT fraud.

The film, Eldorado - a horror comedy flick - was narrated by Peter O'Toole and starred Darryl Hannah, former Dr Who star Sylvester McCoy and David Carradine of Kill Bill and Kung Fu fame.

Southwark Crown Court heard that Richard Driscoll, of Helston, Cornwall, falsified invoices for the costs of making films in order to reclaim VAT that he was not entitled to and set up a number of associated companies which were used purely to commit the crime.

The fraud took place between January 2009 and September 2011.

Driscoll, 54, who owned a Cornish film studio where the films were made, made false claims for repayment of £1.5m of VAT from HMRC, based on wildly inflated production costs of over £9m, but investigators found the real costs were less than £1m.

Bogus invoices were then sent to support the false repayment claims, while other invoices were genuine but had their values inflated.

Paul Barton, HMRC's assistant director of criminal investigation, said: 'Investigators unravelled a complex and organised VAT fraud. Driscoll knew that he was breaking the law, yet chose to overlook it for the opportunity of making what he wrongly assumed would be easy money, at the expense of the UK taxpayer.

'Tax fraud is a serious offence and HMRC will continue to seek out those who attempt to commit these crimes and bring them to justice.'

Driscoll was arrested on 6 June 2011 and found guilty of conspiracy to defraud VAT at Southwark Crown Court on 5 June. He will be sentenced on 1 July 2013.