A Southampton-based organised crime gang who stole more than 3,000 identities in an in an attempt to defraud at least £2 million of Income Tax repayments have been jailed.
Lyubomyr Sytaiylo headed the organised crime gang
The four Eastern European men, who live in Southampton and London, attempted to defraud HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) by submitting false Self Assessment tax repayment claims using stolen and hijacked identities.
Tax crime investigators, who investigated the gang’s offences for four years, described the offences as a “blatant, highly-organised attack”.
The gang stole the identities of people who answered their fake classified job adverts in a UK-based magazine aimed at Eastern Europeans and also created identities based on contact details found in other classified notices.
Identities that were hijacked were mainly Polish people living in the UK – often London-based builders and construction workers looking for work or advertising their business services. The gang’s fake adverts appeared in a UK-based magazine aimed at Eastern Europeans.
One of the gang, Lyubomyr Sytaiylo, had been a tax agent. Once he turned to crime, a number of people who contacted him for tax assistance also had their identities hijacked and used by the fraudsters.
Zoe Ellerbeck, HMRC Assistant Director Criminal Investigation, said: “This was a blatant, highly-organised attack to defraud the UK tax system of vast sums of money using the stolen identities of unsuspecting people.
“During our four-year investigation we discovered the gang hijacked at least 3,000 different identities in an attempt to claim money they weren’t entitled to.
“HMRC officers, working closely with local police forces, were able to stop over £1.3 million claimed by the fraudsters being paid out.”
After an identity was chosen, the fraudsters would fly friends and acquaintances from Lithuania into the UK to open bank accounts and create taxpayer identities in hijacked names. When their job was done these identity mules were allowed to return home.
The gang attempted to claim at least £2m from HMRC, but more than £1.3 million was withheld when officers checking repayment claims became suspicious.
The true extent of the fraud and number of identities stolen may never be known, but it is estimated that the gang carried out at least 1,300 separate attempted fraudulent attacks on HMRC.
Southampton Crown Court heard that Sytaiylo and Ruslanas Bobrovas ran the fraudulent operation. Besik Zveiba managed the operation and controlled the identity mules brought into the UK. Kardo Anderson was responsible for assisting the people who entered the UK and ensuring the accounts were opened.
The HMRC investigation began after Dorset Police uncovered an apparent fraud factory in Bournemouth in February 2009.
The fraud took place between January 2006 and August 2011. The court heard that during the period of the fraud there were threats made between gang members.
Zveiba, 41, and Anderson, 26, an Estonian national, of Radley Terrace, London E16, and previously of Mansel Road East, Southampton, were found guilty by jury at Southampton Crown Court on July 2 of conspiracy to cheat the revenue.
On 26 April 2013 Bobrovas, 37, a Lithuanian national, qualified boxing coach and bouncer, of The Birches, Southampton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cheat the revenue. Sytaiylo, 39, pleaded guilty in March 2013 to the conspiracy.
Sentencing on August 20, His Honour Judge Peter Henry, said: “This was a large scale conspiracy to cheat the revenue over five years. It was not particularly sophisticated, it was nonetheless outrageous. It was straightforward in concept, but needed a great deal of planning.”
The four men received jail sentences totalling 22.5 years.
Anyone with information about people involved in tax fraud to contact the Tax Evasion Hotline on 0800 788 887.
