Conspirators were in the money...but taxman was left in the dark

City Wide Learning's directors all banked large amounts of cash and failed to declare the vast bulk of their income to the taxman. The tax evasion has already been reported to HM Revenue and Customs for investigation and additional financial penalties will come through court action to recover the proceeds of the conspiracy.

That may prove a tricky business for the police with significant amounts of cash being either transferred to businesses or other outlets in the volatile and war-torn state of Somalia or, in the case of director Abdi Rashid Yusuf, ploughed into a 70,000 apartment bought off-plan in Dubai.

Cash was king when it came to running City Wide with 18,400 alone found in an office drawer when the premises were raided.

A police financial analyst brought in to unpick City Wide's finances uncovered a raft of cash payments into the three directors' accounts.

Abdi Rashid Yusuf made cash deposits of 80,212 into his bank account between October 2005 and March 2007, the period spanning the fraud.

Liban Mohammed Yousif made cash deposits of 31,070 and Mustafa Yassin banked 34,790 in cash.

On top of the cash payments, the directors paid themselves huge sums from City Wide's bank account.

Yousif received payments of 172,304 from the company over the 18-month period but only declared 30,000 to the taxman.

Yusuf banked payments of 160,598 from City Wide but only declared taxable income of 11,466. Yassin received 56,708 from City Wide but was only paid 9,641, according to his tax returns.

In court, Yousif attempted to provide a convoluted explanation for the cash and other payments, largely involving work with charities. Yusuf and Yassin gave no evidence and therefore no explanation for their finances.

Mehmet Ince, who charged hundreds of pounds as a middle man to obtain false City Wide certificates, banked 132,000 in cash. He told the court the payments were from his building business, from rental properties and his work as an unofficial interpreter.

He will have to provide a more detailed explanation to avoid a large scale recovery of assets with his case not helped by a sudden drop in his income after police raided City Wide in February 2007.