Horse trader jailed for tax fraud

A man who ran a company trading in horses has been jailed for 28 months for tax fraud.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that Anthony Gribbin, 44, of Thornton Road in Bradford, submitted false invoices to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The invoices were for goods that were either never bought or were VAT exempt and yet Gribbin used them to claim back VAT from HMRC.

Gribbin ran a company called Vale Farms Ltd which is registered as raising horses. Over the 20-month period between September 2018 and May 2020, Gribbin submitted a total of 8 false VAT returns to fraudulently claim back the tax paid from HMRC. In support of the fraudulent claims, he created and submitted a total of 29 false invoices for purchases that were fictitious.

As a result of the fraudulent submissions, HMRC made payments into the Company’s business bank account of  £100,649.57. Gribbin, who has previous convictions for fraud, then transferred the money to his personal account. To hide these transfers, he described them in his bank records as payments to ‘Alanhar’.

But no such payments to suppliers actually occurred, and they were simply a device to hide payments to himself. 

Vale Farms Ltd went into administration in June 2020 and the administrators identified the false invoices. Gribbin was interviewed under caution by HMRC officers on 9 July 2021 at Halifax Police Station. On 28 October 2022, he pleaded guilty at Bradford Crown Court to fraudulent evasion of VAT and possessing criminal property.

On 22 February 2023 at the same court, Gribbin was jailed for 28 months and has been disqualified from being a company director for 6 years.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Maqsood Khan of CPS Mersey Cheshire’s Fraud Unit, said: “Anthony Gribbin is a serial fraudster who seems to have a problem with telling the truth. Despite having previous convictions for fraud, he has set about defrauding the tax payer yet again of hundreds of thousands of pounds. 
 
“He submitted the false invoices and tax returns over a number of months so was clearly intent on methodically stealing the money from the Government. Tax revenue is used for the benefit of everyone in society but people like Gribbin don’t think they have to play their part. They steal and break the law. Now he is behind bars.”