Pay £1.6m or another decade in jail, ex-ATT president warned

THE DISGRACED former president of the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) and a fellow company director – both jailed for a £5m pension scheme tax fraud – have been ordered to pay back a total of £5.1m.

Confiscation proceedings were issued by Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, compelling Andrew Meeson (pictured), 53, to repay £1,642,205.10, and 47-year-old Peter Bradley to repay £3,458,002.29 within six months, or face a further ten years in jail.

The confiscation orders follows a financial investigation by HMRC into the assets of the duo, who were each sentenced to eight and a half years in jail in March 2013.

Meeson and Bradley, both from Wolverhampton, had conspired to receive £5m in fraudulent income tax repayments via their company, Tudor Capital Management Limited.

The pair claimed that the repayments were due on pension contributions of £25m made by scheme members, but HMRC found the contributions did not exist.

Adrian Farley, HMRC’s assistant director of criminal investigation, said: “Meeson and Bradley committed blatant theft, exploiting their positions of trust and authority. Our priority is to track down tax fraudsters and to confiscate their ill-gotten gains. If they do not pay up, they face a substantial additional prison sentence – and they will still owe the money on release.”