Fraudsters jailed over film scam to falsely claim VAT

Fraudsters created a chain of companies to make false VAT applications and claim film tax credits used to encourage the British film industry, Southwark Crown Court was told.

Bashar Al-Issa, 34, of Maida Vale, London, was jailed for six-and-a-half years.

Actor Aoife Madden, 31, of west London – said to have submitted a “pack of lies” to inspectors about the project – was sentenced to four years and eight months.

Pakistani Tariq Hassan, 52, of Loughton, Essex, and Iraqi Osama Al Baghdady, 51, of Crumpsall, Manchester, received four-year jail terms. Architect Ian Sherwood, 53, of Sale, Manchester, who allowed his offices to be used for the fraud, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years.

The court heard that Madden, said by the prosecution to have played a key organisational role, pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to two charges of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue between April 2010 and April 2011.

Al-Issa was convicted on both charges after a trial. Hassan was convicted of one charge of conspiracy to cheat the revenue of film tax credits. Al Baghdady and Sherwood were convicted of one charge of conspiracy to cheat the revenue over VAT repayments.

Under the scam, fraudulent claims were submitted or were being prepared for submission totalling £2.78m. The court was told that £796,318 was received from the first false VAT repayment.

Documents were submitted claiming millions of pounds of worth of work had been paid for.

But all that was produced for the film A Landscape Of Lives was a test shoot in Madden’s home of seven minutes of film of “unusable quality”. The fraudsters hastily arranged for a film to be made on a shoestring budget to cover up the scam after their arrest.

The movie, released on DVD in 2011, included EastEnders actor Marc Bannerman and TV presenter Andrea McLean – both of whom played no part in the fraud.

Madden had said she was related to the actor Sinead Cusack and was “going to use this to try to get her husband Jeremy Irons involved”, prosecutor Rebecca Chalkley said. “There was no truth in either of those individuals being involved in the project.”

Judge Juliet May said innocent actors had given their services to the bogus project, never suspecting they were being exploited.

John Pointing, of HMRC, said: “Falsely claiming VAT that is not due is illegal, so we are pleased that instead of this film flop going straight to DVD, these small-screen Z-listers are going straight to jail.”