Fraudster bought luxury cars on income of £13k
AFRAUDSTER who “enjoys the trappings of money” drove around in £200,000 worth of BMWs, Audis and Mercedes after lying on credit applications, a court has heard.
Ashley Harris told finance firms he had been in a steady job for five years and earned around £30,000 – in fact he had spent much of that time in prison for drug dealing, and the income he declared to the taxman was less than half that amount.
A judge branded the 36-year-old as a “thoroughly greedy and dishonest man” as he sent him to jail.
Swansea Crown Court heard that between November 2015 and May 2016 Harris took out finance on five high-value cars – two BMW M4s, an Audi Q7, an Audi R8, and a Mercedes A-Class. The repayments on the cars amounted to some £3,000 a month.
Paul Hobson, prosecuting, said the defendant kept-up the repayments on the cars, a fact that was a “double-edged sword” for Harris because in the year 2014-15 his declared income to the tax authorities was £8,000 and the following year it was £13,500.
The court heard Harris had lied about his employment history and income in order to get the finance on the cars.
Harris, of Heol Cleddau, Waunarlwydd, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
The court heard that in 2008 Harris was sentenced to four years in prison for supplying drugs.
Then in 2010 he had obtained a car on finance and sold it before making any payments – an offence for which he was given a suspended sentence.
In March 2012 he was sentenced to five and a half years, again for drug dealing, and was released in August 2014 – he was on post-custodial supervision following his release when he committed the most recent offences.
David Singh, for Harris, said his client ran a car sales business, and the motivation for the fraud “may well have been to drive around in expensive cars to portray a certain image”.
The advocate added that the repayments on the cars had been made, and the finance companies had not suffered any loss.
Judge Paul Thomas QC told the defendant he was sceptical about his car-sales business, and said as far as he was concerned the most likely reason for Harris buying the cars was money laundering.
He described Harris as a “thoroughly greedy and dishonest man” who “enjoys the trappings of money” such as driving expensive cars and wearing clothes.
For each of the five fraud offences Harris was sentenced to two years in prison, all the sentences to run concurrently making a total of two years.