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OFFICIAL STEAM GROUP OF BASSAM OMAR

Four British computer dealers were sentenced today a total of 18 and a half years for a £39 million series of VAT and duty frauds involving components imported from the US and Hong Kong.

Omar Bassam, 44, of Girton, Cambridge; Paul Burke, 38, of Shelfield, Walsall; Nicholas Skidmore, 35, Southport, Merseyside; and David Withers, 46, of Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham controlled a network of companies and bank accounts and property in both the UK and the Cayman Islands.

In the first stage of the frauds, computer memory modules were imported into the UK under false - massively undervalued invoices. The value of one consignment was declared as $2,000 when the true value was nearly $1 million.

The second stage involved the manufacture of false invoices to support massive VAT reclaims to which they were not entitled. To add credibility to the false invoices they 'hi-jacked' the details and VAT number of Compaq Computers, which had no knowledge of the scam.