A sales manager with a steel pipe company - who cheated the taxman out of £640,000 by smuggling cheap Chinese-manufactured parts - has dodged prison with a suspended sentence.
Michael Kirk, 42, of Middlecot Close, Orrell, Wigan played a key role in providing paperwork, which supported the scam, masterminded by his ex-boss who has fled the country.
"You were very much the first port of call for the dishonest information provided to Customs and Excise," Croydon Crown Court Recorder Phillip Sapsford QC told first-time offender Kirk.
"Your firm gained an unfair advantage over those who complied with the rules," he added, sentencing the defendant to twelve months imprisonment, suspended for a year, and ordering him to perform 100 hours community service.
Kirk pleaded guilty to being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of duty payable on goods said to be from Japan between January 1, 2003 and July 31, 2006 and goods said to be from India between February 1, 2006 and January 31, 2008.
The parts were subject to a 58.6% tax - nicknamed 'anti-dumping duty' - imposed to thwart importers unfairly undercutting rivals within the EU.
The company, Ashby Scott Ltd. of Unit A, Shell Green Estate, Gorsey Industrial Estate, Widnes was convicted on the same two counts.
Company director John Sutton, 64, of Cheriton Fitzpaine, Crediton, Devon and Park Farm House, Newton St. Margarets, Hereford was also found guilty in his absence.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest and he is believed to be hiding somewhere in Canada.
Kirk's lawyer Mr. Graham Robinson told the court: "He is a hardworking man and before he foolishly got himself involved in this, a thoroughly decent man."
Kirk is now a 25% shareholder in Ashby Scott Manufacturing Ltd. - netting £2,300 per month and with £2,200 monthly out-goings.
His only real asset is the family home he shares with his wife and 15 year-old daughter.
"Mr. Kirk as an employee received no direct benefit," added Mr. Robinson. "He was persuaded by Mr. Sutton that the tax would be paid.
"Unfortunately there were problems in Mr. Sutton's markets, particularly Iran, that resulted in the disappearance of his markets. Everybody's understanding was that Mr, Sutton, through his companies, was going to pay."
A total of £175,000 tax has now been paid.
"It was as a result of your information that the customs tariffs were completed and the duty evaded," Recorder Sapsford told Kirk.
"However, in certain circumstances you always deferred to Mr. Sutton and you were let down by the company and Mr. Sutton."
Kirk was also fined £10,000 with the alternative of six months' imprisonment and was ordered to pay £10,000 costs within three years.
The sentencing of Sutton and the company was adjourned until December 12.
At the start of the trial prosecutor Mr. Julian Christopher QC told the jury: "It's about smuggling. Smuggling comes in all shapes and sizes and one type is the smuggling of Chinese pipe fittings."
To protect European manufacturers the European Commission agreed to impose the tax on carbon steel imports from China.
"The country outside the EU is dumping its products at an artificial price into the EU," said the QC.
The court was told between 2003 and 2008 Ashby Scott Ltd. avoided over £640,000 duty in relation to thirty-one importation's the defendants claimed had come from Japan and India.
"None of that was paid because the pipe fittings were not sent directly from China, but from Japan and later from India," added Mr. Christopher. "The anti-dumping duty ought to have been paid.
The parts were bought from APCO a Chinese/British venture involving a UK company called TFF International - of which Sutton was the managing director and nominated legal representative.
His company had invested $150,000 US into APCO and the Chinese $350,000 US and TFF agreed to handle all the marketing and imports and exports.
The parts were shipped from Dalian, China to Osaka, Japan then immediately re-shipped to Felixstowe and delivered to Ashby Scott Ltd.
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