A horse trader and “serial fraudster who seems to have a problem with telling the truth” has been sent to prison for tax fraud.
Anthony Gribbin, of Thornton Road, Bradford, was convicted of fraudulent evasion of VAT and possessing criminal property, at Bradford Crown Court last October. On 22 February, he was sentenced at the same court.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the 44-year-old submitted false invoices to HMRC, for goods that were never bought, or were bought but were exempt from VAT, yet Gribbin used them to claim VAT back from the Government.
“Gribbin ran a company called Vale Farms Ltd, which is registered as raising horses,” a CPS spokesman said.
“Over the 20-month period between September 2018 and May 2020, Gribbin submitted a total of eight false VAT returns to fraudulently claim back the tax paid from HMRC. In support of the fraudulent claims, he created and submitted a total of 29 false invoices for purchases that were fictitious.
“As a result of the fraudulent submissions, HMRC made payments into the company’s business bank account of £100,649.57. Gribbin, who has previous convictions for fraud, then transferred the money to his personal account. To hide these transfers, he described them in his bank records as payments to ‘Alanhar’.”
The CPS said no such payments to suppliers occurred; they were a “device to hide payments to himself”.
Vale Farms Ltd went into administration in June 2020 and the administrators identified the false invoices, the CPS said. Gribbin was interviewed under caution by HMRC officers on 9 July 2021 at Halifax Police Station.
Last week, he was sentenced to 28 months in prison and was banned from being a company director for six years.
Senior crown prosecutor Maqsood Khan of CPS Mersey Cheshire’s fraud unit, said: “Anthony Gribbin is a serial fraudster who seems to have a problem with telling the truth. Despite having previous convictions for fraud, he has set about defrauding the taxpayer yet again of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“He submitted the false invoices and tax returns over a number of months so was clearly intent on methodically stealing the money from the Government. Tax revenue is used for the benefit of everyone in society but people like Gribbin don’t think they have to play their part. They steal and break the law. Now he is behind bars.”
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