£10M Tax Cheat Voudouri fled Scotland while Crown Office & senior cops bickered over credit, promotions & bonuses for prosecution ‘result’

Convicted £10m tax cheat skipped £100m Lord Advocate after sentence deal collapsed. INFIGHTING between prosecutors, Police & tax officials over who could take public credit for jailing convicted tax cheat Michael Voudouri allowed the fraudster to easily flee Scotland after the collapse of a secret lighter sentencing deal done with Scotland’s £100m a year Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).

The bizarre inter agency wrangling over bonuses, promotions, and even squabbles over the final wording of public statements after Voudouri was safely behind bars, came to light in a leak detailing the bitter recriminations being played out between the agencies who wanted to claim credit for putting Voudouri in jail.

In communications seen by journalists, several key players in the prosecution openly touted for promotions accompanied by higher salaries while others suggested they were “due bonuses for bringing the tax fraudster to justice”.

However, UK tax officials are said to have taken a dim view of the way the Crown Office handled the prosecution and poor presentation of evidence which led to prosecutors being forced to accept a guilty plea for much lesser amounts of fraud than had been alleged after thorough and hugely expensive investigations.

One tax insider branded the Crown Office handling prosecution as being so bad, that he felt such tax avoidance cases should be prosecuted in England & Wales by the Crown Prosecution Service, writing that the “Scottish Crown Office appeared to be riddled with strutting peacocks”.

Voudouri, who skipped bail after being found guilty, is thought to have fled to Cyprus, where newspapers tracked him down to various properties although he has since fled addresses in Cyprus attributed to him at the time.

At the heart of the case which led to the conviction of Voudouri was Q-Tech distribution, a company said to have made a fortune by claiming back VAT on false Europe-wide business transactions in a scam known as carousel fraud.

Prosecutors from the Crown Office said Voudouri was involved in funds being concealed and "removed from the jurisdiction of the Scottish Courts".

He set up bank accounts in Greece and Cyprus as well as limited companies across the globe to keep the cash away from the authorities.

Voudouri had been accused of laundering a total of £48.2m of money from Q-Tech. But the Crown accepted a guilty plea after the sum was reduced to £10.3m. He was bailed but failed to turn up for sentencing in November. Judge Lord Tyre immediately issued a warrant for his arrest after lawyer Vincent Belmonte said he had no way of contacting his client.

Voudouri was jailed for four years in 2004 when he admitted a £3m VAT scam although he was suspected of stealing 10 times that amount. He also admitted a separate charge of hiding £1.2m of dirty cash while he was serving a sentence in HMP Glenochil.

In June, a Proceeds of Crime recovery case against Voudouri had to be postponed for six months at the High Court in Edinburgh after the Crown admitted they had been unable to trace him. The court hearing relates to Voudouri’s Bridge of Allan home, which has been targeted under proceeds of crime laws.

Prosecutor Barry Divers told judge Lord Uist: “There are ongoing efforts being made to trace him and return him to this country for sentence and for completion of this confiscation.”

Earlier in March of this year, Voudouri’s lawyer Richard Housley and accountant Caroline Laing were jailed for six-and-a-half years for their part in an international money laundering network they set up for him.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lindsey Miller, head of the Crown’s serious and organised crime division, said: “After an extremely complex investigation, today we have seen justice delivered to individuals who participated in money laundering and fraud on an industrial scale.

“The investigation into their crimes has spanned the globe, with our economic crime unit gathering evidence from companies and financial institutions in the UK, Greece, Cyprus, Switzerland, the US and the British Virgin Islands.

"This case powerfully demonstrates the ability of our specialist units to prosecute cases of the utmost scale and complexity and bring to justice all those who seek to benefit from crime.”

Recently the convicted tax cheat was put on HMRC’s list of most wanted list, becoming Scotland’s top target.

No one from the Crown Office or Police Scotland was available for comment.

Proceeds of Crime seizures & Cashback for Communities £80m ‘success’ wiped out by £1Billion cost of Crown Office & staff ‘bonus culture’ over last decade

Lord Advocate & Crown Office receive £100million annual funding. PROCEEDS OF CRIME legislation created in 2003 by the then Scottish Executive, has, according to claims made by Scotland’s Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in its latest 2012-2013 annual report on the activities of the Civil Recovery Unit, (CRU) netted around £80 million seized from criminals. However, legal observers have questioned the reliability of the figures provided in the report, which in some cases, relies on “questionable accounting”, ‘staged payments’ from crooked companies, and “speculative figures” relating to cases yet to be decided in the courts.

Unsurprisingly, a fact NOT DISCLOSED in the report is that the total asset seizures announced by the Crown Office yesterday, actually amount to much less than even 10% of the total running cost of the Crown Office over the past ten years, put at a staggering ONE BILLION POUNDS over the last decade, a cost which also includes MASSIVE bonus payments totalling HALF A MILLION POUNDS in just two years, to Crown Office staff and prosecutors.

In the past year, the Crown Office claims about £12m was taken from people involved in activities such as drug dealing, human trafficking and benefit fraud with around £8m of the 2012/13 total coming from convicted criminals. The remaining £4m comes from cash and assets seized through civil court orders. The Crown Office claimed the Proceeds of Crime (Scotland) Act 2002 had become a "powerful tool" against crime.

Solicitor General Lesley Thomson Solicitor General Lesley Thomson QC, who announced the figures, said: "By full use of the proceeds of crime legislation, law enforcement can strike at the very heart of criminality in Scotland to ensure that criminal networks big and small are disrupted and dismantled.

"My message is clear - if you try to make a profit from crime, the Crown will use this legislation to the maximum to take that profit from you and ensure it is put it to a much better use in communities across Scotland through the Scottish government's CashBack scheme."

However, the Solicitor General made no reference to the Bonus culture at the Crown Office which has richly rewarded those involved in prosecutions & asset recovery efforts over the years, reported by the media revealing payments totalling £580,000 to Crown Office staff. Media reports also revealed that former Lord Advocate from 2006-2011, Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC (born McPhilomy) received a taxpayer funded £28,000 ‘golden goodbye’ deal after leaving her job, reported HERE

Since the media report exposing Crown Office bonuses, the practice has been dropped in favour of inflated salaries and generous expenses allowances in an effort to get round further adverse publicity.

Over the last 10 years around £50m has been seized by the Crown Office's Serious and Organised Crime Division (SOCD), which deals with the confiscation of proceeds of crime following a conviction. The remaining £30.5m was secured by the Civil Recovery Unit, headed by Ruaraidh MacNiven, who formerly worked for Lord President Lord Hamilton.The CRU, which has been criticised in court by judges for providing dodgy evidence on previous occasions, can recover proceeds of crime through the civil courts without the need for a criminal conviction.

Commenting further on the figures released in the report, Lindsey Miller, head of the Crown Office's Serious and Organised Crime Division said the £80m that had been seized could otherwise have been reinvested in criminal enterprises.

She said : "We have not become complacent in our success. Crime evolves and we must evolve with it. In the last year alone, we have seen successful confiscation orders against people who have participated in all types of crime, including drug dealing, selling counterfeit goods, embezzlement, human trafficking and benefit fraud. We will continue to use our experience and expertise to maximise disruption to criminal enterprises."

In the past financial year, around £4.3 million was netted from those involved in the so-called "black fish" cases, relating to large-scale undeclared landings of fish in the north of Scotland. Confiscation orders totalling £4,314,290 were made last year against a number of vessel skippers, as well as Shetland Catch Ltd and Fresh Catch Ltd.

James Mangan, 54, Robert Robb, 65, and Craig Hunter, 41, all members of an organised crime network involved in importing Class A drugs, which was unearthed by Strathclyde Police's Operation Trust have also been targeted for asset seizures.

The Civil Recovery Unit (CRU) will eventually recover £5.6m after Aberdeen-based drilling company Abbot Group Ltd accepted it had benefited from corrupt payments made in connection with a 2006 contract entered into by one of its overseas subsidiaries and an overseas oil and gas company. The money is to be paid in three stages to the end of March 2015.

Other examples of asset seizures include the home of gangland figure Kevin "Gerbil" Carroll, who was gunned down in a supermarket car park in 2010, although no reference is made to the fact the Crown Office failed to secure a conviction for the murder of Mr Carroll after a judge ruled the Crown had presented insufficient evidence in the case of an accused suspect.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill Eager as ever to comment on the Crown Office spin, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said: "Prosecutors and police are cracking down on organised crime and criminals have nowhere to hide.More than £12m has been confiscated from criminals last year, hitting them where it hurts - their wallets.

MacAskill continued : "Our communities are benefiting from the hard work of prosecutors and police putting ill-gotten gains to good use through our CashBack for Communities Programme, which invests crooks' cash in facilities and activities for our young people and their communities across the length and breadth of the country."

The Cashback for Communities scheme referred to by the Justice Secretary takes money recovered through proceeds of crime legislation and invests it in activities and facilities for young people at risk of turning to a life of crime. The Scottish Government claim more than £50m has been ploughed back into Scottish communities since Cashback began operating in 2007.

Law & Order : Police to keep share of seized loot from criminal gangs

With all the money being seized from criminals across the country, it has been decided that Police forces will be allowed to keep ‘a share’ of the seized money under proposals soon to be revealed by Government. (Hope there’s some oversight on all those millions flowing between gangs – Ed)

The Scotsman reports :

Crime does pay as police get to keep money seized from gangs

Published Date: 22 April 2009
By Michael Howie
Home affairs correspondent

POLICE will be allowed to keep a share of the money seized from organised crime gangs under a scheme set to be unveiled within weeks.

The Scotsman has learned that forces will be given a major cash incentive to seize more money and assets from drug dealers and other crime barons.

The move has already been given the green light from justice secretary Kenny Mac-Askill and final discussions are taking place with an announcement unveiling the scheme expected within weeks.

Chief constables in Scotland have been pressing the Scottish Government to introduce the "incentivisation" scheme, which officers say will allow them to plough money back into the fight against organised crime.

In England and Wales, about 20 per cent of seized cash is ploughed back into police budgets. For example, the Metropolitan Police were allowed to keep £4 million in 2007-8 under the Home Office's Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme.

But since the introduction of the Proceeds of Crime Act in Scotland in 2003, more than £25 million has gone straight to Holyrood.

Mr MacAskill yesterday told The Scotsman he was "committed to the principle" of a similar incentivisation scheme for police in Scotland.

"I have confirmed that to Acpos (the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland). It is just the detail that has to be worked out.

"Officials are working with police representatives to discuss that."

The main issues to be ironed out are the percentage of money and assets seized that will be handed to the police and the rules governing which authority will be entitled to what.

"If a car in transit is stopped by the SCDEA (Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency) in Dumfries and Galloway, but the drugs are destined for Glasgow, we have to decide who should be allowed to keep the money – the SCDEA, Dumfries and Galloway or Strathclyde," added Mr MacAskill.

He said it would be up to police how they spend the money.

"In the world in which we live, we don't simply want to arrest the drug dealer. We want to get the Rolex watches, the BMW with darkened windows. We want to encourage the police to strip the dealers of all their assets," added Mr MacAskill.

Gordon Meldrum, director general of the SCDEA, said he was "all for" police being allowed to reinvest a share of the proceeds of crime.

"It will allow us to pump-prime the process. We will have the money to invest in the financial investigators and other experts we need to pursue the people behind organised crime. That will enable us to seize more assets and bring in more money."

He said police should be seeking to seize the assets of neighbourhood drug dealers "with the same aggression that the agency goes after criminals".

Senior officers will be keen to ensure the extra revenue raised from the scheme will not be used simply to soften the blow of feared budget cuts in future years, as public spending tightens during the recession.

Since the SNP was elected two years ago, proceeds from crime totalling several million pounds have been used to fund an array of youth projects covering sport, arts and culture under the Scottish Government's CashBack for Communities scheme.

RULED OUT

KENNY MacAskill yesterday confirmed the Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a single national police force.

The justice secretary made the statement during an address at the conference in Peebles of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), which represents the country's 16,000 rank-and-file officers.

Mr MacAskill told officers there would be no changes to the current eight force structure in Scotland.

He said: "Let me take this opportunity to make it clear that our vision for the future does not involve a single police force."

SPF chairman Norrie Flowers told the conference performance reports suggested no failures in the current system. Their comments follow a recent call for a single police force from Paddy Tomkins, who retired as chief inspector of constabulary last week.