Following a trial lasting 2 months at Southwark Crown Court, six defendants were convicted of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and were sentenced a total of more than 24 years’ imprisonment.

The defendant Susanne Green, described by the judge as the “linchpin” of the fraud, used her position as an employee in a HMRC tax office to obtain confidential information about payments of VAT which remain unallocated to the original payer due to insufficient details having been provided with the original payment. She passed those details on to others in the fraud who recruited company directors willing to allow their companies to be used fraudulently to claim the payments, obtaining approximately £2m in the process.

Paul Sharkey and James Jackson were instructed by Roger Makanjuola of the Specialist Fraud Division of the Crown Prosecution Service.

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