Crook used tax fraud to repay proceeds of crime
Conman caged after settling £100,000 bill with VAT scam
A FRAUDSTER who funded a millionaire lifestyle with forged notes was ordered to repay the public nearly £100,000 – but did so using a tax scam.
John Farrell, 61, was jailed for nearly six years in 2009 for his part in a huge counterfeiting operation producing fake banknotes at a factory in East Kilbride.
He was yesterday caged again – this time for 27 months – after using VAT fraud to repay the £96,000 compensation order.
Farrell, who lived in a £1million BY SARAH WARD reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk mansion, used fake passports and driving licences to set up bogus firms and bank accounts to fraudulently claim £180,591.20.
He then laundered £75,000 of the money through a bogus Cypriot account before using it to pay most of the confiscation order.
HMRC probed after concerns were raised about the VAT claims. An officer visited Farrell, who was using the name Andrew Strachan.
But Farrell’s false identity was exposed when he was recognised from a newspaper article about the forgery confiscation order.
Farrell’s home was searched by HMRC on June 5, 2013, where more than 24 mobiles, laptops, memory cards and false passports were seized.
A bag containing a laptop, paperwork relating to the bogus firms, prepaid credit cards and phone sim cards were found. Farrell was arrested and charged the same day.
A serious crime prevention order is also being sought against Farrell for when he leaves jail. It would be the first to be imposed on the back of a HMRC conviction in Scotland.
He had pled guilty to VAT fraud and money laundering at Glasgow Sheriff Court on January 17.