HM Customs + Assets Recovery Agency 1 VAT fraudsters 1

Dylan Creaven (31) had a chat with the UK Assets Recovery Agency(ARA) and the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). He agreed to pay the 2 bodies in September 2006;

1.£ 18Mn
2. €176,000
3. and ....Transfer ownership to them of a luxury villa in Marbella
4. and ... Transfer the ownership to them of 4 racehorses

He agreed to this because the ARA had obtained a freezing order over Mr Creaven’s assets worth €22m including a €1.2m mansion in County Clare and bank accounts in the Middle East and US. It was claimed these assets had been acquired as a result of unlawful trade through SiliconTechnologies Europe Limited, a company set up by and under the directorship of Mr. Creaven.

This was after a jury of 7 woman and 5 man at Blackfriars Crown Court in March 2005, took a month to listen to the evidence and 8 hours to return a unamimous verdict of not guilty to charges of fraud amounting to £162m. These Charges were later reduced to two charges of conspiracy to defraud the public revenue.

Mr Creaven told the court he had traded in good faith and was "distraught" to find himself in the dock.

Customs and the Irish Garda had undertaken “Operation Chipstick” to jointly investigate Silicon Technologies Europe Ltd which turned over €417m in 2000 to 2001 trading in silicon computer and memory chips.

In another case The Guradian reported at the time a related trial 8 men and 1 woman on charges of £100Mn VAT fraud had the trial stopped by the judge. After 40 days of a pre-trial hearing during which the judge heard defence evidence that not all documentation that should have been given to it had been disclosed by Customs.