Guilty: Wembley accountant who took part in £400k Gift Aid and tax fraud

A Wembley accountant faces jail for his role in a £400,000 fraud where the identities of dead people were used to claim back Gift Aid payments from two fake charities.

Abu Talib Ghadiri, 34, of Preston Waye, and his brother Mohsin Raza, 33, carried out the scam after establishing Fatimiyya Trust and The Light Charity which falsely claimed to help victims of natural disasters in Pakistan.

Under the Gift Aid scheme a charity can claim an additional 25 per cent of donations made by taxpayers’.

Harrow Crown Court heard the pair claimed they received charity donations from deceased taxpayers or ineligible taxpayers to claim the repayments.

Ghadiri made false Gift Aid repayments claims for the Fatimiyya Trust of almost £82,250 - £58,524 while his brother pocketed £199,788 via the other fake charity.

In addition, Ghadiri made false VAT repayment claims of £47,000, which were linked to seven bogus companies he had set up under the name and details of his innocent estranged ex-girlfriend to avoid detection.

Last week, both were found guilty of fraud and will be sentenced on April 29.

Martin Brown, fraud investigator at HMRC, said: “Gift Aid is there to support and encourage charitable giving, not to enable greedy criminals to line their own pockets. This kind of fraud is illegal, offensive and wrong. HMRC will come down on it hard.”