Men receive sentences totalling 12 years for inventing bogus films – such as Billy the Beagle – to claim £5m tax relief
Four men found guilty of cheating the UK public purse of more than £5m by abusing a tax relief scheme aimed at helping movie production have been jailed for a total of 12 years.
Anish Anand, Amit Kumar, Sanjeev Mirajkar and Afsana Karim were sentenced on 22 July at Croydon crown court for crimes committed over a four-year period between 2007 and 2011. As well as inventing bogus movies in order to receive tax relief, the quartet produced fake scripts, shooting schedules, crew and cast lists, detailed budgets and contracts with writers and producers, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. Among the movies dreamt up for the scam, which also involved filing fraudulent Vat returns, were fake projects titled Billy the Beagle and Kaun Bola.
The men even stole the title and details from a legitimate film project,...
Four men found guilty of cheating the UK public purse of more than £5m by abusing a tax relief scheme aimed at helping movie production have been jailed for a total of 12 years.
Anish Anand, Amit Kumar, Sanjeev Mirajkar and Afsana Karim were sentenced on 22 July at Croydon crown court for crimes committed over a four-year period between 2007 and 2011. As well as inventing bogus movies in order to receive tax relief, the quartet produced fake scripts, shooting schedules, crew and cast lists, detailed budgets and contracts with writers and producers, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. Among the movies dreamt up for the scam, which also involved filing fraudulent Vat returns, were fake projects titled Billy the Beagle and Kaun Bola.
The men even stole the title and details from a legitimate film project,...
- 7/23/2013
- by Ben Child
- The Guardian - Film News
Four sentenced at Croydon Crown Court in latest film fraud case.
Anish Anand, Amit Kumar, Sanjeev Mirajkar and Afsana Karim were today sentenced at Croydon Crown Court for cheating the public revenue of more than £5m ($7.7m).
The fraud involved bogus Vat receipts and film tax relief claims and the creation of 20 front companies and multiple bogus films.
Anand received seven years and disqualification for seven years as a director, Mirajkar 30 months, Kumar 18 months and Karim a 12-month suspended sentence for two years and 100 hours of unpaid work.
Neena Jhawer, a specialist fraud lawyer at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This sophisticated fraud involved an attack on two separate elements of the tax system, Vat and film tax relief. More than 20 film industry companies were used to facilitate both elements of the fraud, many which were set up solely for that purpose.”
“Over a period of four years, the defendants went to extraordinary lengths to establish an apparently...
Anish Anand, Amit Kumar, Sanjeev Mirajkar and Afsana Karim were today sentenced at Croydon Crown Court for cheating the public revenue of more than £5m ($7.7m).
The fraud involved bogus Vat receipts and film tax relief claims and the creation of 20 front companies and multiple bogus films.
Anand received seven years and disqualification for seven years as a director, Mirajkar 30 months, Kumar 18 months and Karim a 12-month suspended sentence for two years and 100 hours of unpaid work.
Neena Jhawer, a specialist fraud lawyer at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This sophisticated fraud involved an attack on two separate elements of the tax system, Vat and film tax relief. More than 20 film industry companies were used to facilitate both elements of the fraud, many which were set up solely for that purpose.”
“Over a period of four years, the defendants went to extraordinary lengths to establish an apparently...
- 7/22/2013
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
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