A Preston man behind a multi-million-pound counterfeit designer clothing and VAT fraud has lost a Court of Appeal challenge against a £90.5 million confiscation order.
Judges have rejected an appeal by Arif Patel, the former head of a family-run textile business in Preston, who argued the amount he was ordered to repay should be reduced by tens of millions of pounds.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the full confiscation order of £90,503,211.96, imposed at Chester Crown Court in August 2025, should stand.
Patel, who is on the run in Dubai and was convicted in his absence in 2023, was found guilty of a series of offences including false accounting, conspiracy to cheat the public revenue, trading in counterfeit goods and money laundering.
The criminal operation centred on Preston-based textile businesses and involved fraudulent VAT repayment claims worth £33.4 million, alongside the importation and sale of counterfeit branded clothing valued at more than £19 million.
Court documents show the proceeds were laundered through offshore companies and used to acquire a portfolio of properties in Preston, London and overseas.
In the latest appeal, Patel argued the confiscation figure had been unfairly increased through inflation-related calculations because assets frozen under restraint orders had not increased in value over the years.
However, Lord Justice Popplewell, Mr Justice Bryan and HHJ Nicholas Dean KC rejected the argument, finding that criminals should still be required to repay the present-day value of the benefits they obtained from crime.
The judges noted that Patel had absconded to Dubai in 2011 and had spent years fighting the confiscation proceedings.
The ruling said: "The CVM uplift is only as great as it is because the delay in Mr Patel's trial, and in the making of the confiscation order, is his own fault."
The court added that Patel had chosen to conceal his assets and resist confiscation, and that any reduction would undermine the purpose of proceeds-of-crime legislation.
Judges also rejected a separate challenge to findings that Patel had sufficient assets available to satisfy the order.
The court said there was a "strong inference" that he continued to hold substantial unidentified assets while maintaining a comfortable lifestyle in the United Arab Emirates.
The appeal judges upheld earlier findings that Patel had benefited from criminal conduct worth £52.8 million, a figure which rose to more than £90.5 million after adjustments for changes in the value of money over time.
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The court also dismissed an appeal by Patel's former wife, Sabina Patel, who claimed ownership interests in a number of Preston properties that were being treated as part of her ex-husband's assets.
Judges backed earlier findings that her claimed interests in properties including were not genuine beneficial interests and could not be excluded from the confiscation proceedings.
Patel was convicted following a joint investigation by HM Revenue and Customs and Lancashire Police.
Following the confiscation order last year, Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said Patel must repay more than £90 million "or have more prison time added to his original sentence".
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