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News Desk A self styled Lord, who tried to steal £6.8m from the public purse, was jailed for 12 months at the Old Bailey this week, after a complex investigation by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Gregory Roberts, 39, of London, admitted sending fake repayment claims for VAT and income tax worth more than £1.6m each. He also tried to swindle almost £3.5m from the Revenue by sending in a fraudulent company tax return for that amount.
Martin Brown, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation for HMRC, said:
“HMRC will not stand by whilst fraudsters like this try to steal money from the public. We are cracking down on fraud and the Government has made a further £917m available to us to step up the fight against evasion, avoidance and attacks by criminal gangs.”
Trial judge HHJ Worsley QC said:
“Fraud is not a victimless crime; the public pays for frauds committed against HMRC. [Roberts] showed a degree of planning that was not matched by the sophistication of the fraud.”
The massive claims were picked up by HMRC officers, who refused to pay any of the money to Roberts.
When asked to back up his claims for money, the self-styled “Lord Roberts” provided fake invoices and bank statements. The frauds were easily spotted by HMRC investigators because of errors and spelling mistakes; in one invoice Roberts had misspelled Dumfries as “Bum Fries”. Falsified bank statements also showed transactions occurring in the future.
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