VAT four imprisoned

Scammers dodged payments of over £39m

Four men are facing jail sentences totalling 18 years after being convicted of a multimillion-pound VAT scam.

Nicholas Skidmore, Bassam Omar, David Withers and Paul Burke were all charged with cheating the public revenue after dodging more than £39m in VAT payments.

Seven companies were investigated during Operation Delta, run by Birmingham Customs and Excise. The men had used the companies to import chips and memory modules from the US and Hong Kong.

Skidmore and Withers were sentenced to seven years each in jail. If they fail to cooperate with the financial investigation, they could face two extra years.

Burke was jailed for three years with a possible extra two years, and Omar was sentenced to 18 months plus three extra years if he does not cooperate.

Judge Derick Stanley said: "This was a massive assault on public revenue."

Customs representative Mark Powell said: "We are pleased that this lengthy investigation has been concluded with such strong sentencing. We now need to find where the money has gone and assist with the financial investigation."