Car dealer jailed

AN ILFORD car dealer has been jailed for three years for illegally importing vehicles into the UK.

Jawed Siddiqui, who was managing director of Platinum Motors, pleaded guilty to evasion of VAT, evasion of import duty and furnishing of false documents.

Siddiqui was arrested in June 2000 when Police officers visited the car showroom in High Road, Seven Kings.

Vehicles on display were mainly high-value 4x4s and sports cars, some of which had been reported stolen in Japan.

Some of the cars had been "rung" , had false identities ascribed to them, but others were left unaltered.

A search of Siddiqui's business records showed that over 300 vehicles had been imported.

Around 130 of those were seized by, many from innocent buyers, and a number of car dealers who had bought the vehicles from Siddiqui were arrested but later released.

Siddiqui had bogus invoices falsely showing that he had bought the cars in good faith.

The invoices also vastly understated the value paid for the vehicles to avoid VAT and duty payments.

DS Paul Brogan from the Stolen Vehicle Unit said: "Siddiqui knowingly imported vehicles worth many millions of pounds but declared much lower values to customs this allowed him to rob the taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

"His actions, in turn encouraged the theft of vehicles in Japan causing hundreds of car owners to lose their pride and joy forever. Many of these vehicles have been sold to innocent people in the U.K. who now find themselves in the miserable situation of discovering that they are not the rightful owner of the vehicles they paid for.'

"A sentence of 3 years reflects the consequences to those that embark upon such serious criminality."

Sentencing Siddiqui at Wood Green Crown Court, Judge Dean, said "This was a highly sophisticated international fraud with the sole and only motive being financial greed, indulged in with impunity to defraud the Government, Customs and Excise and the general public"

23:46 Tuesday 4th February 2003

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