21 Feb 2013

Two jailed for attempted £145,000 gift aid fraud

Claim was ‘an abuse of a scheme designed to help charities in need’

Two ‘unregulated’ financial advisers who tried to claim a gift aid repayment of almost £145,000 using false documentation and fictitious details of donors have been jailed for two years.

Ghanaian nationals Raymond Agbo, 42, and Akua Owusu, 26, used their financial services agency Mondvi & Co to process a false gift aid claim for a charity called the Church of Grace Ministries UK. The claim, for £144,800, was accompanied by the names and addresses of donors that did not exist.

The pair, who live in Enfield, north London, were convicted in January of conspiring to cheat the public revenue and submitting false documents to HMRC to support the claim.

They returned to the Old Bailey yesterday for sentencing. Judge Marks QC said they had shown “no iota of remorse” for the crime before sentencing them to two years’ imprisonment.

David Margree, assistant director of criminal investigation, said: “Agbo and Owusu had the financial knowledge to make a determined attempt to steal from honest people. They submitted the false claim know that it was an abuse of a scheme designed to help charities in need.”

He urged anyone with knowledge of similar frauds to call the Tax Evasion Hotline on 0800 788 887.

Last summer HMRC said it had detected and foiled fraudulent gift aid claims from charities totalling more than £10m in each of the last two years, and was considering a number of prosecutions.

http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/finance/news/content/14516/two_jailed_for_attempted_145000_gift_aid_fraud

http://www.taxjournal.com/tj/articles/directors-jailed-%C2%A3145000-gift-aid-fraud-25022013

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