Birmingham businessman made £82million in two-week VAT fraud
THE ex-boss of a Midland company employed by Wembley Stadium to sell tickets for England internationals made £82 MILLION in just two weeks in a massive VAT fraud, it has emerged.
But Mark Sheasby, former owner of Birmingham-based Eventmasters, has been ordered to pay back just £75,000 – because that is all his traceable assets are worth.
The 49 year-old, of Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, was jailed for five years in 2007 after pleading guilty to ‘cheating the Public Revenue’.
But a recent confiscation hearing at Northampton Crown Court was told Sheasby’s gain from the VAT scam had been determined at £81,857,263.
That was the amount of cash that passed through one of his former companies, called GW224 Ltd, during a 14-day period in 2002. It is understood the money was never recovered.
Eventmasters Ltd, which Sheasby ran with another director from 1997 until 2005, was not implicated in the scam and had no involvement in the crime.
Lawyers for Sheasby argued at the confiscation hearing in December that there was no evidence that the entrepreneur had personally netted the £82 million.
But Judge Ian Alexander maintained that the huge sum was his benefit from the crime.
