A BUSINESSMAN whose Harrow company was involved in a multi-million VAT fraud was spared jail because he blinded himself during a mental breakdown.
Cameron Thurston, 35, was the sixth member of an organised crime gang to be sentenced for his part in helping to steal £17m from the exchequer.
The dual South African-British national was a director of import-export firm Synergy Services Ltd that used a telephone answering service at KBC Harrow Exchange in Gayton Road although a listing on an online business directory gives the address of the company, founded in 2004, as Kenton Lane, Harrow.
Thurston, of Redhill, Surrey, earlier admitted charges of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue before being handed a three year community order and being disqualified from being a company director for four years at Southwark Crown Court on Friday (Dec 10).
Sentencing him, Judge Michael Gledhill said: “I would normally consider sentencing you to three years in jail as a result of your early guilty plea.
"However, since your arrest you suffered an acute psychotic episode and blinded yourself.
"This sentence should not be taken as any precedence to any other defendants in this trial - it is purely due to your unique circumstances.”
The fraud involved companies buying mobile telephone accessories, memory cards and SIM cards from other EU states VAT-free and bringing them to Britain.
These goods would be sold on successive times at an VAT-inclusive price in a contrived supply chain before being exported back to another EU country.
The exporter would claim a VAT credit note from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs for the VAT paid on purchase of the items, and divert this money out of Britain.
Investigators discovered and blocked applications for a further £5million of VAT reimbursements from the same criminals and uncovered plans for a further £300million fraud.
Thurston's co-defendants, who similarly admitted conspiracy to cheat the public revenue and were sentenced a week before him, included two directors of Goldfree Ltd, the exporter, as well as the two men behind the logistics and freight side of the organisation and a fifth fraudster described by prosecutors as the "guiding mind" behind several other companies involved.
A further 10 defendants have been charged and are due to stand trial next year.
