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Most wanted tax fugitive arrested in Cyprus

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16th Jan 2014
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One of Britain's most wanted tax fugitives has been arrested in Cyprus.

Michael Voudouri was arrested at his home in the north of the country for an alleged immigration offence. 

According to the Guardian, the fugitive - who holds both British and Cypriot citizenship - was discovered after his 26-year-old daughter posted a picture of herself on the beach online.

Voudouri, from Bridge of Allan in Stirlingshire, is wanted for his role in a VAT fraud scheme worth £25m to resell goods several times and claim VAT via setting up fake companies issuing sham invoices.

The VAT he claimed was never passed onto HMRC.

He pleaded guilty to money laundering linked to VAT fraud but failed to appear for sentencing at the High Court in Glasgow in 2012.

He appeared in court in Nicosia on the island on 14 January but has yet to be formally charged with any offence.

Voudouri was on a list of most wanted tax fugitives published by the UK government last August.

Earlier this month, doubts were raised about whether HMRC has enough resources to tackle the most serious forms of tax evasion after official figures showed that just four inspectors are chasing 124 tax fugitives.

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By mikefleming3028
16th Jan 2014 16:20

Devolution

 

  

As a matter of interest if and when Scotland decides to go the whole hog and break away from the union who will pursue such defaulters, current and historic, if the "revenue" recovered will be collected  and credited to the Scottish Exchequer where is the incentive for HMRC to continue to chase these cases. The current position re the Scottish rate of tax ie Income Tax, Aggregates Tax and SDLT is now decided but given the noises coming from the Scottish Parliament I refuse to believe that whatever happens on the Devo vote that they will not be granted further revenue raising powers at some near future time. Given the current limited resource available to chase down such fugitives future tax cheats might well conclude that a tax offence, of any description, might well stand a chance of not being "punished" if committed north of the border. No doubt this will all have been considered by the powers that be and suitable protocols agreed, I for one can`t wait to see how they will work in practice given that Special Compliance Office has a big presence in Scotland as does the Collector in Cumbernauld. Its reasonable to ask will this continue to be the case if Scotland decides on full independence as there then will be pressure to move these jobs south of the border.   

We do live in such interesting times do we not?

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By carnmores
16th Jan 2014 17:06

on a slightly different note!

was he really arrested in Northern (turkish) Cyprus and taken to Nicosia - if so how was this effected or is his daughers home actually in Southern (greek) Cyprus.

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By plato
16th Jan 2014 18:03

Article looks very misleading. He was not arrested because of his tax related crimes. He was arrested because he had a false passport. Hardly relevant to the HMRC campaign...

"Voudouri, 46, from Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, who holds dual Cypriot and British nationality, was seized after allegedly being discovered with a bogus passport. Officials said he was expected to remain in custody while he was investigated in what is being described as a case of identity theft and illegal entry. If found guilty he will be deported to Turkey and from there returned to Britain"

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By daveforbes
17th Jan 2014 09:51

@Carnmores

Nicosia is the last remaining divided capital. I assume it was to the northern end !

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