HMRC reveals top 10 tax fraud cases of 2017
By Tom Carnegie, 4 Jan 18
In its ongoing fight against tax evasion, HM Revenue & Customs has revealed its top ten tax fraud and organised crime cases of 2017. The list includes people with offshore accounts, a would-be spy, millionaires, accountants and data thieves. All cases came with large prison sentences.
A pair of London fraudsters who evaded £46.5m in tax by smuggling wine into the UK were sentenced to a total of 17 and a half years in prison.
Livio Mazzarello, 57, and Louisa Mbadugha, 59, who ran The Italian Wine Company from premises in Neasden, lied about the quantity of wine they imported and sold to evade excise duty and VAT.
They sold the smuggled wine to retailers across the UK and Mazzarello laundered the proceeds of the fraud through the company using a string of bank accounts.
