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Tax cheat used his business as a £42million piggy bank
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent07.04.09
ONE of Britain's biggest “booze barons” faces prison today as his extravagant lifestyle based on money never declared to the taxman is exposed for the first time.
Mohammed Azwar Majeed spent cash illegally transferred from his own business to buy 30 cars, including Bentleys, Lamborghinis and a £650,000 Ferrari Enzo.
He also bought a £1.5 million house and an £800,000 penthouse in Brighton and Hove which he furnished with state-of-the-art Bang and Olufsen hi-fi equipment.
Majeed ran his £42 million business empire as “his own generous piggybank” neither keeping proper records nor filing reliable tax returns, Southwark Crown Court heard.
In a Harrods safe deposit box he kept £500,000 in cash as a “nest egg” hoping it would be safe from the prying eyes of the authorities.
Majeed, 33 of Brighton, a former owner of the Blue Square Premier football team Crawley Town, today admitted three charges.
He pleaded guilty to cheating the Inland Revenue, failing to keep sufficient accounting records and concealing property contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Lisa Wilding, prosecuting, told the court that Majeed had changed his plea to guilty only in January one month before the trial was due to start.
Majeed grew up in a family who ran several off licences in Brighton.
In time he built up a company dealing in wholesale alcohol distribution and running shops and off licences around the south coast.
He called the company SA Retail and ran it mostly in cash, surrounding himself with people “who didn't ask him too many questions”.
Up until May 2006, £35.4 million was paid into SA Retail's business account and £30 million was withdrawn in cash.
Ms Wilding told the court: “Majeed used his business bank account inappropriately to fund a high-living extravagant lifestyle, withdrawing large sums of money in cash to spend on his own benefit.”
She added: “The money removed from this company didn't belong to the defendant but it became his income and should have been declared to the Customs and Revenue.”
Over five years from 2003 Majeed failed to fill out his tax returns properly, failed to declare his full income and failed to provide accurate information and the true position of his company profits.
In all, he is said to have cheated the Inland Revenue of more than £769,000.
Ms Wilding told the court that the money found in the Harrods safe deposit box was “the proceeds of criminal conduct” and had been taken as a nest egg when “his business affairs were looking precarious due to an inquiry begun by Customs and Revenue”.
She added: “He was alerted to the difficulties that had now arisen. The walls were closing in on him.”
The court was to hear mitigation before sentencing.
Reader views (16)
I agree with Helen. These days people are too scared incase they are insighting racial hatred or being prejudiced. Muslims make the rules up as they go along. Allah says you are not allowed to harm your body and that alcohol is bad. Yet muslims still smoke cigarettes and walk the streets of London breathing in all that pollution. Weather or not he evaded £100 or £700,000 of tax, the true fact of the matter is that it's still tax evasion and HMRC would nail anyone given half the chance in a bid to extort yet more money from this sheepish society. So a big well done to Mr Majid. At least he's got balls which is more I can say for some of these spineless ministers hiding away in Westminster.
- Paul, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
£769,000 That's what, a couple of MP's worth?
- Rayd, Pattaya, Thailand
>>Over five years from 2003 Majeed failed to fill out his tax returns properly
Why didn't he get caught sooner?
- Adam, Harrow, UK
Oh that's simple Adam of Harrow uk,
The tax system is now so complicated, overloaded with flawed tax credit systems, etc, etc, massively understaffed, they have to rely on the population being basically honest, and send out propaganda that the Inland Revenue is in control, which it patently isn't, and han't been for some considerable time!
The reality is, there are certain sections of the non-tax paying populace who are getting away with small to huge sums of tax money that will in all probability never be collected and the culprits never brought to book!
Talk to anyone whom works within the Tax Collecting system, and they will tell you that what I have written above is only a small part of what really goes on!
GERONIMO
- Geronimo, LONDON MIDDLESEX
Take the lot off him greedy 'pig'.
- Barbara, Sydney, Australia
Give him a fine of 3 x his tax liability and appoint him to the Treasury or the FSA who could both benefit from his abilities.
- Ike, London
he deserves to lose the lot
- Annie, Devon
If only he'd registered a head office in the cayman isles, he'd have got off scot free
- Jon, Brixton
How on earth does anyone get away withdrawing £30 million in cash from a bank. Guess it must have been one of those trusting safe banks that we are all looking for.
- Glennda, Berkhamsted UK
Er, so we are going to see about 500 cases of fraud being brought forward against our 'Honourable' members whose posteriors regularly grace green leather benches in that place on the Thames, next to Westminster Bridge??
Based on this case, that must happen. Think of the money recovered and huge savings in payoffs and platinum pensions!
- Hugh, Middx
>>Over five years from 2003 Majeed failed to fill out his tax returns properly
Why didn't he get caught sooner?
- Adam, Harrow, UK
Helen - your name indicates to me that you are a Greek with a penchant for launching ships - or maybe I'm being a tad prejudicial here? What was it the immortal bard said - "what's in a name?"
- Leytonstoner, London England
This man can make millions in cash. Why isn't he running a bank?
- Kate, London
Isn't that exactly what our MP's have been doing?
- Maya, London
Is he one of the newcomers who are contributing so much to our culture and country, and who have special tax breaks because their grandparents live abroad. His name indicates he may be a Moslem. I believe that religion abhores drink and in some countries followers stone those who sell it.
- Helen, norwich
He clearly thinks that he can behave in the same way as a government minister and get away with it.
- Dr C R Westwood, crawley uk
Just think if he was an MP- The defense would be I am within the rules.
- John, Edgware MIDDLESEX
