Indian-origin designer clothing scamster ordered to pay back millions of pounds

London, Aug 29 (PTI) An Indian-origin mastermind of a fake designer clothing scam, sentenced earlier over one of the UK’s largest tax frauds, has been ordered to pay back over 90 million pounds in a court ruling this week.

Arif Patel, a 57-year-old clothing manufacturer from Preston in north-west England who now lives in Dubai, was convicted of false accounting, conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and money laundering in 2023.

On Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it had secured a Confiscation Order against Patel at Chester Crown Court, which would mean his assets can be sold to claim the funds owed.

“The CPS has worked robustly with HMRC [His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs] and Lancashire Police to ensure that Arif Patel could not keep the benefit from his fake counterfeit designer clothes scam and fraudulent VAT claims,” said Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service Proceeds of Crime Division.  “In total, he must pay back more than 90 million pounds or have more prison time added to his original sentence. In the last five years, 478 million pounds have been recovered from CPS-obtained Confiscation Orders, ensuring that thousands of convicted criminals cannot profit from their offending. Over 95 million pounds of that amount has been returned to victims of crime, by way of compensation,” he said.

According to UK prosecutors, Patel and his criminal gang stole 33.4 million pounds from the British government through fake Value Added Tax (VAT) repayment claims on false exports of textiles and mobile phones.  They also imported and sold counterfeit clothes valued at over 19.19 million pounds by setting up a “sophisticated chain of sham companies to cover their tracks”. The proceeds from this scam were used to buy property across Preston and London using offshore bank accounts, the CPS said.

“Arif Patel lived a lavish lifestyle at the expense of the law-abiding majority, but he will now lose the property empire he amassed from the proceeds of crime,” said Richard Las, Director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service.

“Our work never stops at conviction. For the last two years, we’ve worked with police and CPS partners to secure one of the biggest criminal confiscations we’ve ever recovered. Tens of millions of pounds of stolen money will now go back to directly fund public services,” he said.

Following a trial in April 2023, Patel had been sentenced in his absence to 20 years' imprisonment for tax fraud in the UK.  At the time, the UK tax department said in total 26 members of the criminal empire had been convicted and sentenced following six trials between 2011 and 2023, leading to jail terms totalling 147 years and seven months.

Mark Winstanley, Assistant Chief Constable from Lancashire Police, said this week: "Arif Patel was the head of a Preston-based Organised Crime Group responsible for causing millions of pounds worth of losses to multiple companies. His actions, motivated by greed, directly impacted the taxpayer.  "A multi-agency operation involving Lancashire police and HMRC has worked tirelessly to bring confiscation proceedings to this point. The Confiscation Order granted for 90,503,211 pounds will ensure funds are returned to the public purse, thereby recovering his criminal gains."  According to the HMRC, Arif Patel travelled to Dubai in July 2011 and has not returned to the UK since before his conviction and sentencing. PTI AK RD RD RD