Law finally catches up with SA fugitive

A FUGITIVE tax fraudster who owes the UK’s GM Revenue and Customs £1.5m (R24.3 million) is starting a six-year jail term after being tracked to Spain.

Lawrence Goldberg, 53, from Johannesburg, was originally jailed in the UK for two years in September 2011 for stealing more than R16.2m (£1m) through a self-assessment tax fraud.

Goldberg registered more than 50 false companies at virtual offices across the UK to pose as nominated tax agents. He invented names of individuals, hijacked innocent people’s identities and sent in thousands of fraudulent tax returns. At the height of his scam in the mid-2000s, he had been submitting about 500 false tax returns a week from his maisonette in west London, a HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) spokesperson said.

British officials said he had successfully claimed R16.2m before investigators detected the fraud. Inquiries identified a further R64.7m in claims to be processed with Goldberg sending in over 2 000 false tax returns via 51 bogus tax agents.

After the fraud was uncovered, he fled the UK in 2007 but continued to operate in Portugal before returning to South Africa where he was arrested with his wife Margarita Reed in April 2008 for bank fraud. It was claimed Goldberg and his wife misrepresented their financial position to Investec Bank.

Both were acquitted in February 2011 after being held in custody for nearly three years.

His case had been investigated by the Wits Justice Project which found he had been sexually assaulted and targeted a number of times by gangs while in prison.

An extradition request from the UK meant that Goldberg remained in custody following his acquittal.

In September 2011, he pleaded guilty before the Old Bailey Court in London to cheating HMRC. He received a four-year sentence, reduced to two because of his time in prison in South Africa.

He was released after serving six months on top of the six months he had spent on remand.

In December 2012, he was ordered to repay£249 999 by December 2013 or receive a default prison sentence of 16 months.

However, Goldberg fled to Spain, changing his name to Leib Berger.

Investigations by HMRC revealed he had further assets and in September 2015 the confiscation order was increased to £1.5m. A month later the default prison sentence was amended to six years.The fraudster was arrested by chance at El Puerto de Santa Maria, in Cadiz province, after police were called to an altercation between Goldberg and a neighbour. Following his arrest it was found a European arrest warrant issued by the British authorities was in force and he was extradited to the UK.

Lawrence Goldberg