Carbon credits and tax fraud = £20 million money laundering scheme = JAIL

A FATHER and son from Surrey have been convicted of laundering millions of pounds of British taxpayers’ money in offshore bank accounts.

Daniel Andrew Barrs, 65, from New Place Gardens in Lingfield and his 29-year-old son Daniel Barrs of Suffolk Close, Horley, were found guilty of laundering more than £20 million.

The pair laundered some of the money gained from an operation orchestrated by Kent fraudsters Narinder Chada, 61, and 46-year-old Gurmail Dosanjh.

They set up fraudulent companies to buy and sell carbon credits – a financial instrument that represents a tonne of carbon dioxide reduced from the atmosphere from an emission reduction project, which can be used to offset damaging carbon emissions that other companies are generating.

Chada and Dosanjh would buy the credits at market value, but sell them cheaply while also charging their clients VAT.

By keeping the VAT rather than passing it on to the Government, the scheme deprived the UK public purse of £11.7 million.

The Barrs disguised where the money came from in this fraud and in a previous case dealt with by HMRC in 2012.

The Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate began investigating in May 2011 after information was passed to the force by HMRC. The first arrests were made in April 2012.

A two month-long trial at Southwark Crown Court concluded last Thursday and the four men will be sentenced on April 20.

Chada, from The Russetts in Meopham, and Dosanjh, from Singlewell Road in Gravesend, were found guilty of conspiracy to cheat the public purse.

The Barrs were convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Detective Constable Phil Kershaw from the directorate said:

“The group traded in carbon credits, which allow companies to legitimately produce more carbon dioxide than they would otherwise be permitted to. They are an ideal commodity for this type of fraud because they do not exist in a physical sense.

“The offenders used companies to buy credits from overseas and sell them in the UK.

They collected the proceeds of their sales and then dishonestly and deliberately abused the VAT system.

When the offences took place in 2009, the rate of VAT was 15 per cent. The more carbon credits they sold, the more VAT they could charge and keep.

“Invoices and paperwork were required to convince HMRC the trade was genuine, but otherwise the fraud was relatively straightforward.

In all, the offenders charged their customers £11.7 million in VAT and moved the money between several companies to try and cover their tracks. We followed the trail of laundered cash from the UK to Europe, the Middle East and as far as New Zealand and Australia.

“This was a very organised operation but we were determined to piece together enough evidence to bring those responsible to justice.”

DC Kershaw added: “This was not a victim-less crime. By depriving the Government of millions of pounds of VAT, the offenders were in effect stealing from all UK taxpayers.

That money should have been spent on schools, hospitals and other services.”

DC Kershaw said the Proceeds of Crime Act legislation will be used to try to recoup as much of the money as possible.