LONDON – A Pakistani expatriate has been sentenced to four years in jail and ordered to repay money in an eight-year-old tax fraud case, ruled a British court.
Mohammad Tanwir Khan, who ran a company called Spearpoint Limited in the UK, had been convicted of an £817,000 VAT fraud in 2013 but he managed to flee Pakistan to escape justice.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in its investigation revealed that the 66-year-old man used more than 350 false exports invoices to get VAT repayments from the government illegally.
He had been awarded a three and a half years sentence in his absence in 2013 as he fled after his conviction in the case.
Tanwir was nabbed on August 13, 2021 after he returned to the UK. Later he appeared before Manchester’s Nightingale Crown Court via video link where his sentence was confirmed.
The court awarded him another six months sentence for absconding.
Eden Noblett, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said that process to recover the looted money is underway, adding that the convict will have to spend another three years in jail over failing to repay the VAT.
