Eleven men and four women have been arrested by Customs Officers
in connection with an alleged £30 million VAT "missing trader"
fraud that spanned Europe. While the arrests were made in the UK,
premises in Holland and Spain were also searched.
The arrests concerned a Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) VAT fraud involving the sale of mobile phones, said HM Customs.
MTIC occurs where fraudsters obtain VAT registration to acquire goods VAT-free from other Member States. They then sell on the goods at VAT inclusive prices and disappear without paying over the VAT paid by their customers to the tax authorities.
The most abusive form of the fraud is "carousel" fraud, where the same consignment of goods is sold through a series of contrived transactions back and forth between Member States in order to steal the sums charged as VAT every time the goods go around the circle.
