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HMRC names new 'most wanted' fugitives

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9th Aug 2013
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HMRC’s campaign against tax evasion has come under fire after it revealed that only two of the UK's 20 most-wanted alleged fraudsters and tax evaders named on a government list last year has been caught.

The UK tax authority published the names and photographs of people it said had cost taxpayers millions in lost revenue, but 18 remain at large.

Labour said the arrest rate suggested the project had been a "huge failure", the BBC reported.

But HMRC said it had intelligence on a number of suspects and 10 more faces have now been added to its gallery for 2013.

Chancellor George Osborne said: “Our message is clear; tax fraud and evasion is illegal and will not be tolerated. Millions of hard-working people pay their taxes and it is they who are being defrauded. The government has stepped up HMRC’s enforcement activities to enable them to pursue tax cheats relentlessly around the world.”

The new list of HMRC’s “most wanted” will “help put more tax fraudsters in the spotlight and bring them to justice,” Osborne said.

News of the slow progress in catching alleged tax evaders was one of the main news stories in the UK on Friday (9 August).

However, HMRC appears to be having more success catching small-time fraudsters.

Seventeen people have been sentenced for a £2.3m VAT repayment fraud using the sale of fictitious concrete crushing machines to fund extravagant lifestyles.

The gang, masterminded by Paul Hackney from Stoke-on-Trent, set up a string of companies to steal money so that they could buy high performance cars, expensive jewellry and exotic holidays at the taxpayer’s expense, HMRC said in July.

The group fabricated transactions and sales of construction equipment. They produced fake invoices and paperwork to try and make their companies look like legitimate traders to reclaim VAT on sales and exports. They did not pay any VAT as the goods didn’t exist.

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