Pak national stripped of assets for tax fraud in UK

A Pakistani national, who became a millionaire overnight through tax fraud, has been asked by a court to pay back over five million pounds, or serve an additional seven-year prison term.

London, July 19 : A Pakistani national, who became a millionaire overnight through tax fraud, has been asked by a court to pay back over five million pounds, or serve an additional seven-year prison term.

Amer Munir, enjoyed a jet-set lifestyle thanks to the "unbelievably simple" Value Added Tax (VAT) fraud, before a Manchester court jailed him for seven years in December 2006, the Manchester Evening News reported.

Amer has now been ordered by the court to pay back over 5.6 million pounds.

Judge Anthony Gee said that Munir had profited by 7.5 million pounds from the tax fraud, and the six million pounds the jury convicted him of, plus interest.

The judge said he was stripping Munir of his illegal profits and assets, which included his family home in Hale, now believed to be worth 1.4 million pounds, an apartment in Dubai, money totalling 500,000 pounds in bank accounts in Jersey, Pakistan and Switzerland, and other miscellaneous items.

The figure also included nearly two million pounds in cash, which "disappeared" from his company bank account.

ANI