Barrister jailed for 17.5m aircraft scam

Tag : fake wool


A barrister was jailed for five years today after an“audacious” bid to pocket £17.5 million in VATthrough the sale of four imaginary Boeing 747 engines.

John Wilmot, 35, told Revenue & Customs he had bought thesecond-hand aircraft from a company in Croydon for £100million then sold them to a contact in Iraq whom he met at abarristers' garden party in London.

The Nigerian national backed up his elaborate get-rich-quick schemewith fake documents portraying a lucrative business sideline.

London’s Southwark Crown Court heard that Wilmot would havereceived the money had his claim passed automated checks. But whena Customs and Excise officer came to see him instead, the advocate— who was called to the Bar in March 2003 — tried topull the wool over his eyes with a sheaf of fictitious invoices anda bogus bill of lading.

Wilmot even told the official the name of the ship he used totransport the engines to Iraq. But a little checking quicklyrevealed it was actually a grain carrier that had never beenequipped for the transport of any other cargo.

Wilmot, who lived in accommodation at Temple Chambers in the City,told investigators the engines existed, his customer was real andthe deal genuine. He represented himself throughout the case andrefused to leave the court cells.

A jury found that he had masterminded the "massive fraud" andconvicted him of one count of cheating the public revenue.

Today, Wilmot again refused to come into court. But in remarksstill addressing the absent defendant, Judge Deborah Taylor decidedto sentence him anyway and said: “You attempted to obtain aVAT refund £17.5 million by submitting a VAT return claimingthat you were entitled to that money when you were not.

“You concocted a sham transaction, you used the details of anexisting company in Croydon who you claimed were vendors of theengines to produce invoices. They had never heard of you nor dealtin second hand aircraft engines.

“In respect of the transport of these fictional engines, youproduced bills of lading for a real ship, which in fact turned outto be a grain carrier, which at the time of the alleged export wascarrying beans to Egypt rather than engines to Iraq.”

The judge said she had no doubt the motive for his crime was to“make a success” of an aircraft company called AvionMarine.

“This was an audacious attempt to obtain a very large sum ofpublic money. All that can be said on your behalf is that you actedalone, it was not complex, it was a single application and that youdid not succeed in getting the money.

“However, that does not detract from the seriousness of theattempt on your part and the steps you took to fabricate theevidence.”

She said she had concluded “at the time of these offences youwere not suffering form the mental illness, namely the psychoticepisode you subsequently suffered after your arrest”.

The judge also bore in mind at the time Wilmot had “veryrecently been appointed a visiting lecturer in law at theUniversity of Westminster, you had attended a number of trainingexercises at Inner Temple and that you were able to fabricate thesort of documents you needed to support your story.

“This all adds up to the conclusion you were entirely awareof what you were doing.”

Furthermore, the medical evidence demonstrated that Wilmot was notcurrently suffering from any mental illness.

The judge said that in addition to prison she was going torecommend that Wilmot, who came to Britain as a 12-year-old, shouldbe deported after his release. She also disqualified him from beinga company director for eight years.

Robert Gray, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigation Directorateat HMRC, said: “As a barrister he was in a position ofknowledge and trust yet he chose to abuse his privileged positionto mount an extremely serious attack on the VAT system and takefrom public funds."