The man behind an Isle of Man company involved in a multi-million pound VAT fraud in the United Kingdom has been jailed for four and a half years.

The firm 'Keep Talking' was set-up as a so-called 'buffer company' as part of an elaborate fraud centred on the mobile phone industry.

The chief conspirator is starting a 15 year jail term, the longest sentence ever handed down by a British court for this type of crime.

Marian Kenny has the story (text from attached audio file):

Emmanuel Hening from Luxembourg headed the eight-strong gang which operated a ?54 million fraud against the UK Revenue.

Full reporting restrictions have been in place during the trials of the conspirators, which ended last month, but these have now been lifted.

Hening set up various companies which claimed to import European two pin plug phones into the UK VAT free. He then sold them on paper charging VAT that was never paid to the Revenue.

These companies then went missing and the phones were sold to various buffer traders, each making a profit, before being exported back to Hening.

One of them was Keep Talking of Peel Road, Douglas, the proprietor of which, David Burch, from the West Midlands, has been sentenced to four and a half years for his part in the fraud.