Wigan people smuggler gets suspended sentence for fraud after lying about sales at pizza takeaway

A convicted Wigan people smuggler who lied about the sales at his pizza takeaway has walked free from court after being given a suspended jail sentence for VAT fraud.
HMRCHMRC
HMRC

Karwan Osman, of Bradshaigh House, fleeced the public out of more than £23,000 after spending two years evading tax at his Frog Lane business.

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The 29-year-old was given 12 months in custody, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work at Bolton Crown Court.

Osman was already walking a legal tightrope as he received a previous suspended sentence in March last year for trying to sneak a Syrian woman into the UK in the boot of his car.

The most recent offence involved Osman, previously known as Ibrahim Rashid Abdullah, failing to declare sales made through online ordering service Just Eat between 2015 and 2017.

It resulted in the business declaring substantially lower turnover figures and VAT payments.

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Tim Atkins, assistant director of the fraud investigation service at HMRC, said: “This was not a mistake or an oversight. Osman received payments through Just Eat for nearly five years and should have been VAT registered from 2015.

"He knew he should have declared all of this income and paid the tax he owed, like everybody else.

“We will not hesitate in taking action against anyone who thinks they can hide income from us."

Previously Osman was hauled up in court after he attempted to smuggle a woman, the wife of a friend, between Rotterdam and Hull in January 2016.

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Osman avoided jail after a judge accepted he wanted to help a friend and had not been motivated by money. He was handed an 18-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for facilitating the illegal entry of a foreign national into the UK.

Information about any type of tax fraud can be reported to HMRC on the hotline 0800 788 887 or online at www.gov.uk/report-an-unregistered-trader-or-business.