Company Run From Tiny Council Flat In £140M VAT Scam

A small Islington flat was the HQ of an electronics company, which combined with four other firms to cheat the vat man out of £140m, a jury were told on Friday.

Fix Electrics Ltd. of Catherwood Court(pictured), Murray Grove suddenly sprung up and in just three weeks purported to import £136m worth of mobile phones and computer processing units.

The company’s director Samuel Adeyemi,31, of nearby Evelyn Court, Evelyn Walk assured Customs and Excise his £23.8 VAT liability would be paid – but in reality the taxman did not receive a penny.

He has pleaded not guilty at Croydon Crown Court to cheating the revenue of that sum between August 24 and September 12, 2005.

“The prosecution case is that there was a large scale evasion and he was the front man for Fix Electronics Limited,” prosecutor Mr. Mark Bryant-Heron told the court.

“He ran Fix Electronics for a time and ran up this liability never intending to pay that amount.

“What fix did was part of a wider highly-organised scheme of five companies that defaulted on their VAT obligation consecutively in a combined sum of one hundred and forty million pounds,” added Mr. Mark Bryant-Heron.

“This was a sophisticated attack on the tax system and this flat was at the centre of this multi-million pound business.”

Adeyemi, who lived with his mother nearby applied for a VAT number in April 2005, claiming he was an electrical wholesaler with a projected annual turnover of £900,000.

The defendant does not deny a fraud took place, but insists he is the victim of mistaken identity.