Almost all of HMRC’s investigators were involved in coordinated raids across the UK on 12 March 2003, targeting dozens of individuals and 30 companies.
The operation centred on Winnington Networks Ltd, based in Crewe, Cheshire. The company used a network of UK and overseas firms to trade in metals, electrical items and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) airtime. Between 2011 and 2014, Winnington submitted 18 VAT returns but failed to pay more than £20 million owed to the tax authority.
William Lindfield, 63, who served seven years in the Royal Marines before working in security in the UK and Iraq, joined the Winnington fraud while working as a firefighter in Manchester. He tricked ten fellow firefighters into unwittingly allowing their bank accounts to be used in the scheme.
Lindfield acted as a “shadow director” of Winnington and provided security during cash transfers to gangsters, including London-based Tommy Adams and Craig Johnson, who was linked to a Liverpool gang. Adams, 67, is known to have controlled the Clerkenwell Syndicate in north London alongside his brothers Terry, 70, and Patrick, 69. The gang has long been associated with extortion, drug dealing and money laundering.
Revenue investigators bugged a meeting of the Winnington conspirators at the De Vere Hotel in Cheadle, south Manchester, in 2013, during which Adams’s role as a financier was discussed. Although Adams was not charged in this case, the court heard that organised crime groups were promised a 5 per cent return on their investments, as well as a means of laundering proceeds from other criminal activities.
As the fraud flourished, Lindfield regularly delivered bags of cash to Adams between 2011 and 2014. Adams himself was later jailed for money laundering in 2017 after investigators bugged a restaurant in Holborn, central London, where he received cash deliveries. A coded ledger later revealed details of his hidden assets.
Judge Dafna Spiro said Lindfield was “at the heart of the planning” and held meetings with organised crime figures. He was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for conspiracy to cheat the public revenue.
Lindfield’s partner, Sarah Peploe, 54, was convicted of converting criminal property after allowing her accounts to receive £276,000 and handling £70,000 in cash. She received a 21-month sentence, suspended for 18 months.
Beverley Thompson, 60, wife of another gang leader, Leslie Thompson, 63, was given a two-year suspended sentence after allowing more than £300,000 to flow through her bank accounts while the couple enjoyed a luxury lifestyle including two homes in Florida.
Other defendants included Vishal Chudasama, 42, who was jailed for three years and six months after receiving up to £80,000 for “intermediary services”, and Adeel Malik, 45, who received a 23-month suspended sentence.
Kashaf Bashir, 43, who ran Slimtel in Newcastle, paid Winnington £50,000 to use its infrastructure to conduct his own £136,000 fraud. He also received a 23-month suspended sentence. His associate, Assim Rather, 43, missed sentencing after being taken to hospital with a suspected stroke.
Judge Spiro had already sentenced 13 others involved in the operation following three linked trials.
Richard Las, director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said:
“This incredibly complex fraud was dismantled thanks to the tenacity, skill and dedication of our criminal investigators. I hope this sends a clear message to anyone involved in tax fraud that regardless of how complex it may be, we have the skills, resources and determination to catch you and bring you to justice.”
