Britain: Indian-origin mastermind jailed for designer cloth scam, imprisoned for 20 years

Indian-origin Arif Patel, the mastermind of the fake designer clothes scam, was on Thursday sentenced to 20 years in prison for tax fraud in the UK. Patel was accused of colluding with a criminal gang to evade tax of 97 million pounds by claiming VAT refunds on fraudulent exports of clothing and mobile phones.

Arif Patel, 55, a socks maker, was found guilty last month. The UK tax department found Patel guilty in what has been described as one of the biggest cases of fraudulent tax evasion in the country’s history. Patel was found guilty of false accounting, conspiracy to defraud the public revenue, selling counterfeit clothing and money laundering after a 14-week trial at Chester Crown Court and sentenced.

Richard Lass, director of the Fraud Investigation Service at the Royal Revenue and Customs (HMRC), told a hearing last month that Arif Patel lived a luxurious life at the expense of the vast majority of law-abiding people.

He said that for over a decade HMRC and our partners have worked hard together to bring this gang to justice… Our work will not stop. The gang embezzled more than 78 million pounds of British property and the process of recovering the amount has been initiated.

A co-accused of Arif, Mohammed Jafar Ali, 58, of Dubai, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud HMRC and money laundering, was also sentenced to 11 years in prison on Friday.