Car import gang in £4m fraud

8:27pm Thursday 10th January 2008

A MARRIED father-of-four involved in a £4million car importing fraud had more than £90,000 stashed at his home when police arrested him, a court heard.

Thomas Beard, 46, of Acorn Lodge, Gypsy Caravan Site, Longsight Road, Clayton-le-Dale was part of a group who imported 109 high perform-ance cars over a two-year period.

Beard, along with James Mounsey, 33 and Alexander Howard, 29, both from Morecambe, have pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to defraud.

Between April 2004 and April 2006 they imported performance cars including Mercedes and BMWs from garages in Holland, Belgium and Germany. Preston Crown Court heard that Beard accepted involvement in three of these cases.

Gordon Cole, QC prosecuting, said Beard was found to have £93,000 in a bank account and a further £91,000 at his home when he was arrested last April.

The court was told all three men had benefited from the car deals, many of which had been carried out through Go Racing Management Ltd, a company they set up on the internet.

Mr Cole said: "Mr Beard played his part travelling to Europe and purchasing cars. There is evidence he contacted garages in Europe and he exchanged £90,000 and £71,000 into Euros in Brussels during this period."

He added that in the six years prior to Beard's arrest on April 25, he had failed to pay any National Insurance or income tax.

Mr Cole said Beard had banked more than £400,000 over the two-year period.

He told the court Mounsey had banked £650,000 during this time and Howard had accrued almost £350,000.

He added: "They used a system of lost and stolen passports and those from people no longer alive to avoid the payment of VAT.

"The cars were then sold on, making them a substantial profit and letting them live a nice life."

The men often set up bogus companies using the fake IDs.

This meant that when the taxman came to reclaim the VAT they often found that the companies had closed down. The result was the trio owed around £500,000 in unpaid VAT, the court was told.

The men were arrested as part of Operation Anfield, an 18-month inquiry into money laundering carried out by the Serious and Organised Crime Un-stabulary.

The men were due to be sentenced today.

(Proceeding)

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