A pensioner from Leeds who set up more than 26 fictitious companies claiming to sell anti-snoring devices in a £280,000 VAT fraud has been jailed. Over four years, Anthony Van Jeffery Newton, 68, – who called himself “Sir Anthony” on credit cards – made over 100 false claims for VAT refunds to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). He used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle, including taking expensive holidays and maintaining a luxury apartment in one of Spain’s most sought after golf resorts.
Newton was caught after HMRC officers found that a significant number of his company registrations were linked to the same product, an anti-snoring device called “The Snorestopper”. Officers discovered that all of Newton’s businesses were bogus and had been set up solely to steal tax. He had registered company names to mailbox addresses in Wakefield, London and Leeds but was living at his luxury apartment in Marbella.
HMRC Assistant Director for Criminal Investigation Peter Hollier said after the case: “Newton thought he could make extra money to fund his retirement at the expense of the taxpayer – but he was mistaken and as a direct result of our investigation Newton has lost his home in Spain. HMRC staff are trained to look for unusual trading patterns and once suspicions had been raised it was only a matter of time before his attempts to fraudulently claim VAT refunds were exposed.
“We take this type of crime extremely seriously and ask anyone with information about people or businesses involved in tax fraud to contact the Tax Evasion hotline on 0800 788 887 or online at www.hmrc.gov.uk/reportingfraud/online.htm ”
When HMRC challenged Newton he supplied a range of invoices and receipts showing thousands of pounds of business purchases and expenditure. However, officers discovered that these documents were not only false but that Newton had hijacked the identities of innocent people using them to set up fraudulent companies.
Newton fraudulently received around £147,000 in VAT refunds and attempted to claim a further £143,000. He was arrested at his home in Leeds in April 2012 and was later charged with cheating the Public Revenue contrary to common law.
Newton was sentenced on January 11, 2013, at Leeds Crown Court to two years imprisonment and was disqualified as a company director for six years.
His Honour Judge Bayliss QC said: “This was a systematic fraud on the public revenue, professional, planned and deliberate. It was a brazen use of false identities which could have caused irreversible damage to the people who had no knowledge of what you had done and in any view this was a serious case of a sophisticated fraud.”
Anthony Van Jeffrey Newton (16/07/1944) of 34 The Moorings, Alwoodley, Leeds. Newton pleaded guilty to fraud offences which took place between 2008 and 2011.
