Spared jail for his part in fraud

A Castlemilk man who helped a convicted counterfeiter steal £180,000 in a VAT scam has avoided jail.

Scott Thomson, 57, allowed John Farrell 62, to register bogus companies at his addresses between December 2010 and June 2013.

He provided Farrell with addresses in Cambuslang and Croftfoot.

Farrell stole the six-figure sum by claiming VAT for the fake businesses.

He used fake passports and driving licences in order to set up the scam.

Farrell was jailed for 27 months last year after pleading guilty to VAT fraud.

Thomson was tracked down in Spain and held in custody before being extradited to the UK in August 2018.

He stood trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court in January and was convicted of “facilitating the commission of VAT fraud.”

Thomson was ordered to perform 300 hours unpaid work by Sheriff Andrew Cubie, who told him:“The jury were satisfied that you knew your addresses were underpinning organised crime.

“I take into account you spent time in custody in Spain for extradition.

“These frauds cannot be undertaken without people like you and for whatever reason, you let him use your addresses.”

Defence counsel Graham Robertson, defending, told the court Thomson was“aware of an investigation”but left for Spain with his family several years later.

He said:“He settled into his new life to start again in a new country in the pub business.

“It was a year later, he was arrested in Spain on a warrant and was told he would be extradited.

“His position is he was he was not aware of the seriousness of what Farrell was engaged in.”

An HMRC investigation discovered that Farrell had also laundered £75,000 through a Cypriot bank account.

A raid of Farrell’s Thorntonhall home in 2013 recovered 24 mobile phones, memory cards, laptops and passports.

Farrell used the money he earned from the fraud to pay a £96,000 confiscation order for printing fake bank notes in 2009.