Bogus Film: Five Jailed Over Tax Credit Fraud

Five fraudsters who pretended they were making a film backed by Hollywood A-listers as part of a £2.8m tax scam have been jailed.

The group had told inspectors that top actors would be starring in a £19.6m film called Landscape Of Lives, which would be shot in the UK.

They were able to claim nearly £3m in VAT and tax credits designed to help genuine British filmmakers.

But officials grew suspicious when the only footage produced was seven minutes of "completely unusable quality", Southwark Crown Court, in central London, heard.

To cover their tracks, the fraudsters quickly set about making a film on a shoestring budget of £84,000 called A Landscape of Lies, drafting in unwitting actors and filmmakers.

That production went on to win a prize at the 2012 Las Vegas Film Festival.

Bashar Al Issa, 34, a former Iraqi national who is now British, of Rodney Court, Maida Vale, London, described as the orchestrator of the fraud, was jailed for six-and-a-half years by Judge Juliet May.

Actor Aoife Madden, 31, a British and Irish national, of Maclise Road, west London, said to have submitted a "pack of lies" to inspectors about the project, was sentenced to four years and eight months.

Tariq Hassan, 52, a Pakistani national, of Willingale Road, Loughton, Essex, and Osama Al Baghdady, 51, an Iraqi national of Lowther Road, Crumpsall, Manchester, were each jailed for four years.

A fifth defendant, architect Ian Sherwood, 53, of Esher Drive, Sale, Manchester, who allowed his offices to be used for the fraud, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years.

Judge May said the fraud had been based on an "entirely bogus film project".

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