A fraudster who masterminded a £1.2million VAT con and blew £19,000 on his birthday party has been jailed.
Nicholas Adams handed in bogus company tax returns to HMRC and then used the VAT repayments to pay for his 49th birthday party, flights to the UAE and luxury hotel stays in London and Dubai.
Over a 19-month period between January 2022 and August 2023, Adams posed as the director of a shell company, Greenpoint Technologies, which he claimed specialised in aircraft and spacecraft maintenance.
However, this was only a front for the scam, which made him £373,706.
In total, Adams tried to claw back over £1.2million in total before raising suspicions of officials at HMRC, who then withheld further payments.
