HM Revenue & Customs has released details of a £250 million VAT fraud that generated its money from the supposed import and export of mobile phones. A number of people were arrested in July 2003, with the first sentences being handed down in 2008, although reporting restrictions prevented details of the crimes being published at the time.

Fifteen people have now been sentenced in six separate trials.

Mark Bridge writes:

Flash is dead, HTML5 is the future. Okay, the next stage in the evolution of the mobile browser isn’t that clear – but a restructure at Adobe has pretty much marked the end of mobile Flash development.

Nigel Cranswick, a former policeman from South Yorkshire, has been jailed for over ten years today for his part in an attempted £330 million VAT fraud. He and six others, including his sister and brother-in-law, were caught by investigators from HM Revenue & Customs.

They’d set up a business called Ideas 2 Go Ltd and falsely claimed they’d generated billions of pounds in turnover selling mobile phones and computer software.

The nine men jailed in December 2010 and January 2011 after a £17 million ‘missing trader’ VAT fraud have been joined by four more men.

A further defendant has been charged and is due to stand trial next year.

Five men from London, Berkshire and Gloucester have been jailed this week for a total of 37½ years after failing to pay £140 million tax in a 'missing trader' VAT fraud. The investigation began in October 2005 and resulted in a series of court cases that started last December.

Four of the men each set up their own limited company, most of which only traded for a few weeks, while the fifth dealt with administration.