Prosecutors are to take court action to seize the profits of three London fraudsters and a fourth man who cheated footballers, pop stars and other investors of more than £76 million through a fake film scheme.
More than 275 investors put their money into a film development company that was marketed as a legitimate tax avoidance scheme created by a Marylebone accountant and two financial advisers from the capital.
Tax investigators later discovered that the company, which claimed to have spent £250 million preparing films, was a scam and at a hearing last week secured the jailing of the three London fraudsters for nine years each. The fourth crook, an accountant based in Monaco, was given a two-year suspended sentence.
Their illegal profits have not been recovered, however, prompting prosecutors to announce that they plan to begin legal proceedings to secure the stolen cash.
Naheed Hussain, deputy head of the Specialist Fraud Division at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “These men used a scheme designed to boost the British economy and stole money from the public purse. The CPS will now take steps to recover the criminal assets in this case.” The illegal scheme, which sought to cheat the public purse of £100 million, was given the name Little Wing Films. Those who are understood to have invested include Sam Allardyce, the manager of Sunderland FC, and Peter Reid, the former England international.
Paul Burrell, the former butler to Diana, Princess of Wales, as well as pop stars such as Mike Skinner of The Streets and Damon Gough, who is known as Badly Drawn Boy, are also thought to have been victims.
The scheme was created by accountant Keith Hayley, 64, and financial advisers Robert Bevan and Anthony Charles Savill, both 53.
The trio, who were helped by Monaco-based Norman Leighton, 65, claimed that for every £100,000 invested, higher-rate taxpayers would get £130,000 in tax repayments from HM Revenue and Customs, but instead falsified expenses totalling more than £275 million to increase the sums fraudulently recovered from the taxman.
The fraudsters’ illegal profits were channelled through offshore companies registered in the British Virgin Islands that supposedly operated in Monaco, Geneva and the Channel Islands and were fronted by friends in the Philippines and Calcutta.
Bevan used some of the proceeds to buy properties in Ibiza and Primrose Hill. Savill purchased homes in Notting Hill and on the French Riviera and also a Chelsea season ticket, flying back from France for matches. Meanwhile, the investors, unaware that the scheme was a scam, claimed around £100 million in tax repayments. They are now liable to repay the money.
The four men were convicted of cheating the public revenue after a hearing at Birmingham crown court. Simon York, director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: “The fraud was a deliberate attempt to steal from the taxpayer, as well as investors who now face hefty tax bills. These fraudsters were already wealthy individuals who thought they could get away with it — now they are paying the price behind bars. HMRC’s investigators exposed this crime.”
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