15/08/2006

22 arrested in major fraud operation

Customs officers have arrested 22 people across the UK in HM Revenue & Customs largest ever operation targeting multi-million pound VAT frauds.

Over 400 HMRC criminal investigators, supported by 100 officers from Strathclyde Police, Greater Manchester Police and the Metropolitan Police Service, carried out searches at 60 business and domestic addresses in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The investigation, which is on-going, is being co-ordinated by HMRC in Scotland, in consultation with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Gordon Miller, Deputy Director, HMRC Investigation said: "Organised criminals are attacking the tax system, with the aim of stealing huge amounts of revenue. The scale of the problem across Europe is unprecedented and HMRC has significantly strengthened its response to this serious fraud.

"Today's operation, the biggest ever undertaken by HMRC, is part of a large scale, international criminal investigation into frauds that may run to hundreds of millions of pounds. We are committed to tackling carousel fraud and to showing the criminals behind it, wherever they operate in the world, that there are no safe havens."

(KMcA)

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