Two people have been jailed for their part a £5 million fraud that “triggered Northern Ireland’s biggest ever tax probe”.
The pair were sentenced on Tuesday as part of a mammoth investigation that saw HMRC investigators use covert surveillance to build their case.
In total 27 people have been sentenced for their part in the tax dodging. In one excerpt from the covert surveillance, at a Belfast accountancy firm, one person is heard to say the office would be an “Aladdin’s cave” for fraud investigators, adding they would “go down in history” if they were ever caught.
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In a statement issued on Wednesday, HMRC said the decade-long investigation into the £5 million tax fraud ended on Tuesday “with prison sentences issued to gang leaders 58-year-old Francis Devlin and 56-year-old Paul McStravick for a combined total of eight years”.
HM Revenue and Customs said the case was based on more than 260 hours of “secretly recorded footage of gang members plotting the fraud from the Belfast accountancy firm Allen Tully & Co where Devlin was a partner and the wider gang used as a base”.
Information on the Companies House website indicates that the firm was dissolved in June 2015.
Devlin and McStravick were jailed for four years each. Another 25 accomplices, “most of whom knowingly allowed their personal details to be used as part of the fraud, were handed suspended prison sentences”.
Richard Las, Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “This was a sophisticated and complex fraud that took the largest ever tax probe in Northern Ireland, including extensive covert surveillance, for HMRC fraud investigators to bring it down.
“Their tenacity and expertise has stopped the loss of millions of pounds in taxpayers’ money, which is now paying for our vital public services, rather than lining the pockets of criminals.
“The fact is, no tax criminal is beyond our reach and that includes those corrupt professionals who aid and abet them, as these sentences clearly show. We encourage anyone with information about any type of tax fraud to report it to HMRC online.”
HMRC says the gang “created a false audit trail that enabled clients to operate in the construction industry without paying tax or VAT”.
They added: “They created 16 bogus companies and used 56 associated bank accounts to commit the fraud. Working with partners in the PSNI, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS), the National Crime Agency and financial institutions, HMRC built the case before swooping on 34 premises.
“More than 400 HMRC officers searched 34 business and residential premises in March 2012, including three in England, in its biggest ever operation in Northern Ireland. HMRC kept the gang under the secret surveillance for six weeks between February and March 2012.
“It’s the first time the technique has been used by HMRC in Northern Ireland and it is reserved for the most serious of tax fraud cases. Use of this technique requires approval from the surveillance commissioner.”
Graham Cardwell, Senior Public Prosecutor at the PPS, said: “In this case, we worked closely with HMRC from an early stage in their investigation, which involved an extensive undercover surveillance operation.
“HMRC investigators submitted a large and complex file of evidence, including digital material and witness statements, to the PPS for consideration. The prosecution team including counsel pulled together the various strands of evidence to form a strong prosecution case, which has resulted in these convictions.”
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