Arif Patel, 57, from Preston and now in Dubai, was convicted in 2023 of tax fraud, money laundering, and fraudulent accounting.
Patel and his gang defrauded the UK of £33.4M through fake VAT refunds and sold £19M in counterfeit clothes.
Chester Crown Court issued a £90.5M Confiscation Order; failure to pay will extend Patel’s 20-year sentence.
In a court decision this week, an Indian-origin mastermind of one of the biggest scams in the UK, a fake designer apparel scheme, was punished for one of the country's worst tax frauds and ordered to repay more than 90 million pounds.
In 2023, 57-year-old Arif Patel, a textile producer from Preston, northwest England, who currently resides in Dubai, was found guilty of money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the public revenue, and fraudulent accounting.
In Chester Crown Court, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced on Thursday that it had obtained a Confiscation Order against Patel, allowing for the sale of his assets to recoup the money due.
“The CPS has worked robustly with HMRC [His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs] and Lancashire Police to ensure that Arif Patel could not keep the benefit from his fake counterfeit designer clothes scam and fraudulent VAT claims,” said Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service Proceeds of Crime Division. “In total, he must pay back more than 90 million pounds or have more prison time added to his original sentence. In the last five years, 478 million pounds have been recovered from CPS-obtained Confiscation Orders, ensuring that thousands of convicted criminals cannot profit from their offending. Over 95 million pounds of that amount has been returned to victims of crime, by way of compensation,” he said.
UK authorities claim that Patel and his criminal gang defrauded the British government of 33.4 million pounds by submitting fictitious Value Added Tax (VAT) refund claims based on fictitious shipments of mobile phones and textiles. Additionally, they established a "sophisticated chain of sham companies to cover their tracks" to import and sell counterfeit clothing worth over 19.19 million pounds. According to the CPS, the money obtained from this scam was used to purchase real estate in Preston and London using offshore bank accounts.
Director of HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service Richard Las stated, “Arif Patel lived a lavish lifestyle at the expense of the law-abiding majority, but he will now lose the property empire he amassed from the proceeds of crime."
“Our work never stops at conviction. For the last two years, we’ve worked with police and CPS partners to secure one of the biggest criminal confiscations we’ve ever recovered. Tens of millions of pounds of stolen money will now go back to directly fund public services,” he said.
Patel was found guilty of tax fraud in the UK and given a 20-year prison sentence in his absence during a trial in April 2023. The UK tax authorities at the time stated that 26 members of the criminal enterprise had been found guilty and sentenced after six trials between 2011 and 2023, resulting in 147 years and seven months in prison.
Mark Winstanley, Assistant Chief Constable from Lancashire Police, said this week: "Arif Patel was the head of a Preston-based Organised Crime Group responsible for causing millions of pounds worth of losses to multiple companies. His actions, motivated by greed, directly impacted the taxpayer. "A multi-agency operation involving Lancashire police and HMRC has worked tirelessly to bring confiscation proceedings to this point. The Confiscation Order granted for 90,503,211 pounds will ensure funds are returned to the public purse, thereby recovering his criminal gains." According to the HMRC, Arif Patel travelled to Dubai in July 2011 and has not returned to the UK since before his conviction and sentencing.
