The taxpayer was convicted on several counts of missing trader intra community fraud. The estimated VAT lost to the Exchequer was approximately £5 million.
At the subsequent confiscation proceedings, the prosecution alleged that the defendant had a criminal lifestyle under Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, s 75(1) from which he had benefited.
The judge agreed and made a confiscation order for £5.3 million. The defendant appealed.
The Court of Appeal said that s 76(5) required the court to treat any offender who obtained pecuniary advantage as if he had obtained a sum of money equal to that advantage.
This was not a rebuttable presumption, but mandatory. In the case at hand, the pecuniary advantage had been translated into money.
Furthermore, the defendant had failed to account for the relevant VAT over a period of more than six months and had carried on a criminal lifestyle.
The taxpayer’s appeal was dismissed.
