Celebrities, bankers and football stars have been caught up in an alleged £125 million tax fraud that revolved around film investment, according to the Mail on Sunday.
According to the report, West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce, Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell and pop singers Mike Skinner of The Streets and Damon Gough (known as Badly Drawn Boy) were all investors in the schemes.
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City figures, including Caspar Shand Kydd, nephew of Princess Diana’s stepfather, Peter Shand Kydd, also put in cash.
Five people said to be behind the alleged frauds were last month charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Keith Hayley, Robert Bevan, Charles Savill, Cyril Megret and Norman Leighton are due to appear before Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on 18 June 2013.
It is alleged between January 2002 and July 2011, the five abused tax relief that allows investors in the British film industry to offset losses against other tax liabilities.
The CPS alleges the five falsely claimed the value of allowable losses and defrauded investors through false accounting documents.
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By GlobalDataFilm schemes have been popular among City and entertainment figures over the past ten years, but many set-ups have been challenged by the taxman.
Some investors sued their financial advisers over the plans, the report added.
