THE ringleader of a gang who tried to defraud more than £176m in VAT, partly operating from Oxfordshire, has been jailed for 17 years.
Dilawar Ravjani, of Uxbridge Road, Stanmore, Middlesex, was jailed at Kingston Crown Court and disqualified from being a company director for 15 years.
The 15-strong criminal gang, who attempted to defraud through complex mobile phone trading scams, were sentenced following the conclusion of five linked fraud trials, according to HM Revenue & Customs.
Ravjani, 34, was also based in Dubai. His companies operated from Abingdon and Stanmore, in Middlesex. However, in many cases the phones did not exist, including 250,000 which had not yet been launched in the United Kingdom.
In an attempt to make the trade appear legitimate, more than 5,700 fake business transactions were created in order to claim large amounts of VAT.
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