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£2.8m film tax scammers sentenced

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26th Mar 2013
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Fraudsters behind a £2.8m film tax scam have received prison sentences after an HMRC investigation found they fraudulently claimed film tax credits and VAT.

Following their conviction last week, the scammers received sentences varying from four to six years for their offences.

Bashar Al-Issa, 34, from London, Aoife Madden from Northern Ireland, Tariq Hassan from Essex and Ian Sherwood and Osama Al Baghdady from Manchester set up film company Evolved Pictures and told auditors they had a budget of £19m to make a film in the UK.

The group claimed £1.5m in film tax breaks after they said they intended to make a film titled Landscape of Lives with a £19 million budget, funded by Jordanian backers.

Once they were arrested two years ago, the five produced a film called Landscape of Lies for £90,000, which went on to win a Silver Ace award from last year’s Las Vegas film festival.

The film A Landscape of Lives was a sham production, according to HMRC, and a cover for the gang’s real intent to defraud the Revenue of £1.5m in VAT and £1.3m in film tax credit claims.

The movie starred Loose Women presenter Andrea McClean and former Eastenders star Marc Bannerman.

Bashar Al-Issa was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and sentenced to six years, five months in prison. 

One-time girlfriend of Chris Evans, Northern Irish Aoife Madden pleaded guilty of two counts of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and received four years eight months in prison. 

Accomplice Tariq Hassan from Essex was convicted of one count of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. Ian Sherwood from Manchester was sentenced to three years six months in prison for one count of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and Osama Al Baghdady from Manchester was sentenced to four years for one count of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue.

The movie-makers claimed the original movie, Landscape of Lives  would star Hollywood A-list actors, but the film they eventually produced was shot on a shoestring budget featuring the two TV personalities in a bid to cover their tracks after the gang was arrested.

The group claimed a VAT repayment of nearly £1.5m was due as millions had been spent on the production, including wages.

Evolved also made fraudulent tax credit claims of over £250,000 and prepared to submit a further claim of just over £1m.

Upon checks HMRC found that suppliers and film studios had never even heard of Evolved and that the work had not been done.

It was after this that the gang decided to shoot the low-budget version of the film.

Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation at HMRC John Pointing commented: “This gang thought they could exploit rules for genuine British filmmakers and thieve from the public purse for their own gain. They were wrong as HMRC will not stand by and let that happen,” he added.

Confiscation proceedings are currently underway. 

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