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The defendants were shareholders of a company that dealt in computer parts.
They were involved with missing trader inter-community fraud and were convicted of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue. Confiscation orders were made.
The judge decided the benefit for each defendant was the VAT and all the money that had passed through the company’s bank accounts, on the basis it was all connected with the fraud.
He found the defendants had hidden assets and had not shown that they did not have realisable assets to pay the sum, which he decreed should be £92,333,667 each.
The defendants appealed.
The Court of Appeal ruled that only the VAT reclaimed constituted the benefit to the defendants and reduced the amount to £16,145.098 each.
The appeal was allowed in part.
