Couple who funded high life with Chanel VAT con face prison

 
Professional fraudsters: couple Emmanuel and Behnaz Scotts
Op Gemini - Emmanuel Scotts convicted of a £280,000 VAT fraud involving Chanel designer goods Op Gemini - Emmanuel Scotts convicted of a £280,000 VAT fraud involving Chanel designer goods NO OTHER INFO AVAILABLE./ In edition 17/02/2014
17 February 2014
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A couple convicted of a £280,000 VAT scam to fund a Chelsea penthouse and glamorous lifestyle have been ordered to repay more than £53,000 or serve 15 months in jail.

“Professional” fraudsters Emmanuel and Behnaz Scotts, who claimed £32,000 a year in benefits, spent their ill-gotten gains on designer goods, private schooling for their children and gambling at casinos before being caught.

They conned staff at fashion stores into thinking they were rich tourists so they could claim tax back on refunded goods.

The couple bought items at three Chanel boutiques in London, pretending to be wealthy customers. They would later return the goods to a different Chanel shop and obtain a refund or an exchange. They gained the trust of staff, who they conned into supplying VAT export claim forms for goods they had not purchased.

The fraudsters sent these forms to the company handling Chanel’s customer VAT refunds, which then handed over the cash.

Emmanuel Scotts, 46, who has convictions for similar rackets in the UK, Switzerland and Sweden, was jailed in March 2012 for four and a half years, while his 44-year-old wife had her 51-week jail term suspended for two years after admitting transferring profits of £74,000 into her bank account.

At an Old Bailey confiscation hearing last week, he was told to repay £27,672 within six months and his wife £25,622, or face 15 months in jail.

Robert Alder, assistant director for criminal investigation at HMRC, said: “Emmanuel and Behnaz Scotts were professional fraudsters and thought they were too clever to fail. They passed themselves off as high rollers and spent large sums of criminal cash in expensive boutiques and casinos.

“But their glamorous lifestyle was a sham, funded at the expense of the taxpayer. Our investigations do not stop on sentencing — we pursue the money stolen to reclaim it for the country’s finances.”

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