A fraudster who masterminded a £1.2million VAT con and blew £19,000 on his birthday party has been jailed.
Nicholas Adams handed in bogus company tax returns to HMRC and then used the VAT repayments to pay for his 49th birthday party, flights to the UAE and luxury hotel stays in London and Dubai.
Over a 19-month period between January 2022 and August 2023, Adams posed as the director of a shell company, Greenpoint Technologies, which he claimed specialised in aircraft and spacecraft maintenance.
However, this was only a front for the scam, which made him £373,706.
In total, Adams tried to claw back over £1.2million in total before raising suspicions of officials at HMRC, who then withheld further payments.
He splashed hundreds of thousands of pounds on what prosecutor Martha Smith-Higgins said was ‘a very lavish lifestyle’.
There were three stays at five-star hotels – two at The Savoy in London and one at the Atlantis in Dubai.
Nicholas Adams handed in bogus company tax returns into HMRC
Adams outside Newport Crown Court before he was jailed for knowingly being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of VAT
Newport Crown Court heard that Adams lived it up on the proceeds, throwing a £19,000 birthday party at The Botanist in Cardiff, and splashing out on luxury trips to Dubai and London, including stays at The Savoy and Atlantis The Palm.
He also spent £43,000 on clothes and jewellery and jetted off to the UAE using the stolen money.
But the lavish lifestyle came crashing down when HMRC launched a probe and raided his home, uncovering a trove of forged paperwork.
Initially when officials queried the tax returns, Adams lied and created fake documents to support his story but these proved to be wrong after the raid.
‘He was the controlling mind behind a substantial and sophisticated VAT fraud,’ said Ms Smith-Higgins.
‘This was fraud from the outset.’
The court was told Adams spiralled into debt after losing his job following Brexit and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act in 2021.
His defence lawyer, Peter Dennison, said he had since tackled alcohol dependency and was ‘ashamed and remorseful’.
Newport Crown Court, pictured, heard that Adams lived it up on the proceeds, throwing a £19,000 birthday party at The Botanist in Cardiff, and splashing out on luxury trips to Dubai and London, including stays at The Savoy and Atlantis The Palm
But Judge Daniel Williams was clear: ‘This was a vehicle for fraud. It was sophisticated offending over a prolonged period. The culpability was high.’
Adams, of Whitchurch, who had pleaded guilty to knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of VAT at an earlier hearing, was jailed for two years, though he’s likely to serve just one behind bars.
Following sentencing, an HMRC spokesperson said: ‘Tax fraud is not a victimless crime.
‘It has real consequences for the public services we all rely on and we are working hard to ensure tax cheats like Nicholas Adams do not gain an unfair advantage over their law-abiding competitors who pay the tax that’s due.
‘We encourage anyone with information about any type of tax fraud or money laundering to report it online at www.gov.uk.’
