A STOURPORT man who was an accomplice in a £2.6 million VAT fraud has been jailed for 15 months.

Graham Scriven, 53, of Wilden Top Road, Stourport, helped facilitate the fraud by creating and forging documentation, including invoices and VAT returns.

He was one of three West Midlands accomplices of an accountant. They were sentenced to a total of seven years for stealing £2.6 million in VAT by creating numerous bogus travel companies to make false repayment claims.

Parmjit Rana, a chartered accountant, set up 19 fake travel businesses across the UK, which were operated by his co-defendants, who helped launder the criminal profits of the fraud.

Criminal investigators from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) discovered that Rana created the fake travel companies and instructed his co-defendants to set up bank accounts, which were used by them to reclaim VAT on zero-rated travel services.

They would then withdraw the repayments credited by HMRC in cash. These companies, however, provided no public travel services, which is their stated business and no evidence was found of any trading activity.

A Confiscation Order is being pursued. Assets of £2.75 million have been restrained.

The other defendants sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court today included Parmjit Singh Rana, 47, of Vicarage Road, Smethwick.

He was sentenced to four years in prison. He was also disqualified from being a company director for 10 years.

Rana led the conspiracy. He initiated, devised and controlled the fraud. He also ran two accountancy businesses – Rana Accountants and Anderson Accountants - and created a false one called Siverwood Accountants, all in the West Midlands.

Those three firms of accountants handled the VAT returns for all of the travel companies, validating their false VAT returns in order to secure repayments from HMRC.

Amrit Singh Mangat, 58, previously known as Romeshwar Singh Mangat, of Westfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

Mangat controlled the bank accounts of two of the travel companies.

He submitted false VAT returns, accepted the repayments from HMRC and withdrew the cash and handed it over to Rana.

The fourth defendant, sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on January 26, 2010 was Ajmer Kooner Singh, 41, of Birmingham Road, Great Barr, Birmingham, was given 15 months in prison.

Singh controlled eight bank accounts connected to fake travel companies. He submitted false VAT returns, accepted the repayments from HMRC and withdrew the cash and handed it over to Rana.

Adrian Farley, Assistant Director of Criminal Investigation for HMRC, said: “This was a calculated plot by a man in a position of trust who deprived the nation’s public services of millions.

“We are determined to take the strongest possible action against professionals who direct organised criminal activity and will now work to reclaim the proceeds of this crime.”