Fraudsters pay back half of £3.7m loot

In November 2006, Jonathan Bell, of Fairfield South, Kingston, and John Palmer, of Oatlands Drive, Weybridge, were found guilty along with five other men of VAT evasion and laundering proceeds of fraud through company Peripheral Brokers.

Along with Bell's brother Alexander, the two men were the ringleaders of a "carousel fraud" when computer chips were sold between various companies from February 2001 and March 2002.

Customers were charged VAT on each sale but this was not passed on by the fraudsters to the taxman.

They also traded in pirated copies of Microsoft products and hundreds of counterfeit Microsoft discs and certificates were seized in an HM Revenue and Customs raid on Alexander Bell's home in Hersham.

Jonathan Bell, 43, and Palmer, 47, appeared at Kingston Crown Court last Wednesday at a confiscation hearing to recoup the stolen money.

The court heard that Bell, recently released from prison after serving less than half of a two-year jail sentence for the crime, had benefited by no less than £682,933 from the scam.

Judge Campbell ordered him to pay back £450,000 which will come from selling his property in Fairfield South, Kingston.

Palmer, who is still serving a three-year sentence for his part in the crime, had the full £3.7million from the scam pass through his hands but was ordered to pay back only £125,000.

Both men have nine months to pay, or Bell will receive a further three years in prison and Palmer an extra two years.

The confiscation orders totalled £1,526,436, less than half of the £3.7million netted by the scam.

A spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs said: "It is frustrating that we can't recoup all the money, but we can only claim back the assets that the criminals still have, and unfortunately not many are saving for a pension."

Alexander Bell, 42, of Burwood Road, Hersham, is appealing his conviction at the high court on November 8.

Confiscation proceedings against him are set for January 7.