Top 32 tax cheats get combined 152 years behind bars

THIRTY-TWO of the country's most wanted tax criminals of 2012 have received a combined 152 years and ten months in prison after a series of operations by HM Revenue & Customs.

The lengthiest sentence – 35 years – was handed to Sandeep Singh Dosanjh, Ranjot Singh Chahal and Navdeep Singh Gill for their part in a carousel fraud, which involved a series of fictional transactions and caused the law to be changed on how VAT is reclaimed on carbon credits.

Among the others included in the number is Roy Faichney, who was jailed for four years for his involvement in the £70m charity tax fraud conducted during his time at Vantis Tax.

Faichney was managing partner at the firm and worked with his deputy David Perrin to share £4.5m in profit from a fraudulent tax scheme that 'gifted' charities worthless shares while the tax advisors claimed tens of millions of pounds in tax relief on clients' behalf.

In another case, Kevin Ramon Burrage, Gary Dennis Clarke, Michael Brian Turner and Davinder Singh Dhaliwal each received 21 years and three months after they undertook what HMRC described as "one of the biggest ever alcohol smuggling frauds ever uncovered in the UK". The scam was worth £50m a year in unpaid duty and VAT.

In a written statement, HMRC said: "A tax campaign has been launched by HMRC as part of the government's £917m investment to tackle tax evasion, avoidance and fraud from 2011-12. This has been added to with a further £77m over the next two years. This will aim to raise an additional £7bn each year by 2014-15."