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Bad Girls star’s father is second crime boss to hold onto fraud profits
Martin Bentham, Home Affairs Editor6 Oct 2009
The criminal father of a TV actress owes taxpayers more than £1.7 million after failing to pay a court order imposed seven years ago. It is a new blow to the Government's drive to seize convicts' profits.
Vincent Stapleton, whose daughter Nicola has starred in Bad Girls, Emmerdale, EastEnders and The Bill, was ordered to pay more than £1.6 million after being convicted at the Old Bailey for his role in a £12 million VAT fraud.
He has since paid only £313,590 after mounting a series of legal challenges that have thwarted prosecutors' efforts to seize the remaining cash. His debt, which is increasing daily due to interest charges, has risen to £1,739,011.
Raymond May, another fraudster who was convicted alongside Stapleton, has failed to pay a £3.26 million confiscation order that he was given for his role in the same VAT scam. The cases have raised concerns about the effectiveness of the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office, which is responsible for enforcing the confiscation orders.
Stapleton, May and six others were convicted in September 2001 of wrongly claiming VAT rebates in a fraud involving the transfer of computer chips between companies. He was sentenced to five years in jail and, after a hearing at Blackfriars crown court in 2002, given the confiscation order.
Prosecutors have shelved moves to activate a “default” penalty under which Stapleton could be sent back to jail for four years for his failure to pay.
They claim that despite Stapleton's deadline for payment ending in August 2005, it would be “wholly wrong” to return him to jail while other means of obtaining the money remain available.
A High Court ruling last year decided that Ms Stapleton was the owner of a house in South Norwood, which prosecutors had wanted to seize.
The court heard that Stapleton, who has convictions for robbery, handling stolen goods and assault, bought the home to launder money.
The judge, however, found in favour of Ms Stapleton, saying she was “truthful and honest” and ruling that the home could not be confiscated as she had bought it with her own earnings.
Today's disclosures about Stapleton, 58, from Kingston, follow the revelations about the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office's lack of success in obtaining cash from May.
May, whose assets were listed in court as including a house in Bromley valued at £2.25 million, owes more than £4.1 million and is seeking to use human rights laws to block an attempt to send him to jail for non-payment.
A spokesman for the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office said its lawyers were “vigorously” pursuing Stapleton and May and were determined to ensure the debts were paid.
Reader views (3)
Look at this old guy seems as they want him to commit crime to pay for this confiscation order.
I really feel sorry for his daughter after having her name dragged through the mud at least a judge saw sense....do you think she can get compensation for having her name tarnished as I am sure it would of effected her acting.
So there's bent coppers, expense's fiddles by MP's and you want to worry about this old man.
The law is an ass!
- Pip King, Royal Borough Of Berkshire, 08/10/2009 09:39
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Yet another good reason to abolish the infernal
Human(Criminal) Rights Act. Who uses it apart from
criminals?
- Lb, Bromley, 07/10/2009 05:31
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Well I guess you can't be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" if you're too busy trying to avoid the law for expenses fiddles, illegal wars and trying to get the opposition nicked.
- Bob, Cheam, 06/10/2009 09:55
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