"“We have lent a huge amount of money to the U.S. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I am definitely a little worried.” "


Chinese premier Wen Jiabao 12th March 2009


""We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."


Timothy Geithner US Secretary of the Treasury, previously President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.1/3/2009

Thursday, March 06, 2008

UK Trade for 2007 - Exports down 10% - Imports up , Carousel VAT fraud stopped rising as well

Stop Press : The Official Champagne trade body CIVC report that Britain imported 39 million bottles of Champagne last year - more than Spain, Japan and the United States put together - rising by 5.9 % last year.

UK Regional Trade in Goods have been released today ;

EXPORTS

Total value of UK exports for the 12 months to Dec 2007 was £219 Bn and fell by £ 24 Bn (10%)
UK exports to the EU decreased by £25,595m (17 %) in the same period. Northern Ireland was the only country of the UK that had an increase.

UK exports to countries outside the EU increased by £693m (1%).

IMPORTS

The total value of UK imports for the 12 months to Dec 2007 was £308.6 Bn. and rose by £ 6 Bn. (2%)

UK Imports from the EU increased by £4 Bn. (2.5 %) in the same period.

UK Imports from countries outside the EU increased by £2.6 Bn (2 %).

Trade Gap/Deficit = a Record £88 Bn. it was £55.8Bn in 2006 and £44.6 Bn in 2005

NB : Comparison of Exports and Imports between 2006 and 2007 are affected by changes in trade associated with VAT carousel fraud (MTIC) and by EU enlargement in January 2007

Sandra Tudor of the Trade in Goods Branch Statistics and Analysis of Trade Unit Balance Of Payments Division Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence in a document accompanying the Trade Statistics released today says that the impact on the trade statistics associated with Missing Trader Intra-Community VAT fraud is currently growing again – estimated at over £8 billion in Q1 2006 (13 billion euros or 14 billion US dollars).

Substantial adjustments (now up to £8 billion in a quarter) are being made to the trade figures to account for missing trade declarations associated with MTIC fraud.

She says in the same document ..."It is essential that it is made clear that the estimates are of missing trade declarations associated with carousel fraud, NOT of the fraud itself. The level of tax at risk is substantially lower. On a simplistic basis the level of tax at risk is 17.5% of the trade (the UK VAT rate). However, this will overestimate the level of VAT loss and we have explained to the Press that the estimate of the impact of MTIC fraud on trade should not be used in this way."

If adjustments are being made of £8Bn of trade transactions in 1 Quarter are being made then at a generous 10% = $800 Mn. of VAT per Qtr = £3.2 Bn. a year is still going missing in VAT payments.

Sandra Tudor explains how Carousel Fraud works ...



More posts on Carousel Fraud here and also "Lord Houghton" , law lecturer, lay preacher in £51 Mn VAT carousel fraud jailed for 61/2 years - 8 Mr Bigs free due to botched investigation by HMRC 29-11-2007 and ...Another fucking thieving VAT carousel fraudster locked up - Harjit Singh Takkar, he stole £4.5 Mn. in 3 months from taxpayer. 28-9-2007 also Raymond John Cox , Big fish caught in Carousel fraud (MITC) and £85 Million of taxpayers money which has gone AWOL 12-6-2007 also Massive Europe wide raids to tackle huge VAT fraud 12-12-2006 and how most of them used a certain bank ...VAT scams used Bermuda based Transworld Payment Solutions to move money 11-22-2006

Pic of lady called Stacy Haber-Hofberg, DOB 25/01/62 a former environmental judge in New York , who had moved to Liphook, Hampshire with her English husband and their three young children , received six years in September 2005 along with 3 others for her part (total 22 years in jail) in a £40Mn. VAT fraud. In passing sentence, Her Honour Judge Williams said, "It was an audacious and outrageous fraud... all defendants showed a shameless dishonesty."The highly organised scam, operated over 2 years, involved buying mobile phones from twelve fictitious companies (they were clones of legitimate UK firms, set up in Hong Kong with names and letter-heads identical to British firms dealing legitimately in telephones and computer chips) and using false receipts to charge VAT on the transactions, resulting in a loss to HM Revenue & Customs of more than £40 million.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think sometimes you need to slow down and think; think laterally. If the country was really losing such huge sums surely there would be a state of emergency.
You need to ask yourself why the principals in these frauds are rarely if ever caught? Why is there virtually no investigation into the missing monies? Why is disclosure not made during trials?
How can you call someone ' a fucking thieving VAT carousel fraudster' when in all probabilty they have been duped, set up and had their trials manipulated. It would be more appropriate to address Gordon Brown in these terms.

Anonymous said...

State of Emergency??
Unaccustomed as I am to defending Lord Patel, the sums involved in carousel fraud are relatively insubstantial.

3 bilion GBP might be the start of a sensible retirement plan, it's what the USA slips into the back pocket of the British Army for taking incoming in Iraq, but it pales against the UK's GDP of one trillion GBP.
The real problem from these figures is that UK imports are roughly one third greater than exports.

I could think of more derogatory terms to address Gordon Brown than "fucking thieving ... fraudster" but then, I preferred Sonny Bono to Edward de Bono.

Anonymous said...

To sam_m
According to Assistant Chief Investigation Officer Deborah Hayman:" This type of fraud ... threatens the economic well-being of the country"

ziz said...

So do (In no particular order)Gordon Brown, Alastair Darling, Lord Mervyn King,Dawn Primarolo, Yvette Cooper and her gormless husband ....

Anonymous said...

Shutter you are very quick off the mark. Maybe a little too quick.

(C) Very Seriously Disorganised Criminals 2002/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 - copy anything you wish