EU may demand €2bn from UK after customs fraud investigation
Written by News on 08/03/2017
The UK is facing a potentially damaging row with Brussels as it prepares for Brexit, with the EU fraud investigators recommending the country pay €2bn (£1.7bn) to cover alleged customs failures related to Chinese imports.
The bloc’s anti-fraud office, known as OLAF, said it believed the EU’s budget was owed the money to cover the cost of duties lost when the UK failed to tackle a widespread, and deliberate, undervaluation of goods.
Its inquiry found that fraudsters evaded customs duties by using false invoices and incorrect customs value declarations between 2013 and 2016.
OLAF claimed that while several other EU member states took action to combat the fraud, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) continued to ignore the problem despite repeated warnings.
Its statement said: "These fraudsters are in fact organised crime groups whose actions affect the entire EU; they operate in criminal networks active across the EU.
"The OLAF investigation revealed that most of the imports arrive for custom clearance in the UK, but are in fact supplies destined for the black market traffic of textiles and footwear in other member states across the EU.
"Upon concluding the investigation, OLAF calculated a loss of almost €2bn to the EU budget in terms of lost customs duties due on textiles and shoes imported from China through the UK in the period 2013-2016.
"These losses to the EU budget are still on-going since this fraud has not been stopped to date."
The organisation said it was now up to the EU and UK authorities to decide how to proceed – a scenario the UK would have been keen to avoid as the Government prepares to trigger the formal process for leaving the EU.
HMRC told Sky News: "This is not a bill, it is OLAF’s estimate of evaded duty, and not one that is recognised by our experts who will be challenging OLAF on their calculations.
"HMRC has a very strong track record for tackling fraud and rule breaking of all kinds, securing more than £26.6bn last year alone and no one should be in any doubt that we are responding to the threat of fraud.
"HMRC is currently handling more than 550 cases relating to potential import fraud, and will not hesitate to engage the relevant prosecuting authorities to bring cases before the courts where evidence of wrongdoing exists."
(c) Sky News 2017: EU may demand €2bn from UK after customs fraud investigation
