Exchequer counts cost of carousel case lost in Europe

Gavin McFarlane of Temple Chambers Cardiff

Among many headaches which the new department of Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has inherited from the former Customs and Excise is carousel fraud. The concept of carousel fraud has been around for a long time, blossoming after the United Kingdom joined the European Union in 1972. In those early days it first attracted attention when livestock were driven back and forth across the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Agricultural levies were paid in respect of movement of animals from one member state to another. The same animals would be driven back whence they had come, surreptitiously at night across some remote uncontrolled crossing point. The process would then be repeated with the same animals moved across the frontier in order to collect a fresh payment.