Two men jailed over £8.5million teeth whitening scam: Tax dodgers used stolen money to fund their lavish lifestyle and planned to build matching swimming pools shaped like TEETH
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Two callous tax dodgers have been jailed over an £8.5million teeth whitening scam used to fund their lavish lifestyles.
Ian Barnes, 53, and Alastair Ramage, 44, were jailed for almost nine years after they swindled millions in taxpayers' cash, spent £100,000 on holidays and planned to build matching teeth-shaped swimming pools.
The duo from Merseyside knowingly imported and sold teeth whitening products with dangerously high levels of hydrogen peroxide.
They used two companies, UK Teeth Whitening Ltd and IBAR Trading Ltd, based in Hong Kong and Seychelles, to flog the harmful products.
With the stolen cash the pair spent £16,000 on a baseball cap, more than £500 on the ice cream sundae from the Home Alone movie and £100,000 with one holiday company.
HMRC also seized luxury watches, diamond jewellery and a gold bar from the men, who planned to build neighbouring villas together in Florida.
After they failed to pay VAT, HMRC investigators proved they had laundered more than £8.5million using 118 bank accounts, credit cards and cryptocurrency trading platforms.
More than £3.4million of the stolen money was laundered through accounts held with the Euro Pacific Bank in Puerto Rico, which closed in 2022.
Ian Barnes, 53, (left) and Alastair Ramage, 44 (right) were sentenced to a combined eight years and 10 months at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday
The pair spent thousands on diamond jewellery and luxury watches including the Rolex pictured
Stacks of £20 notes were seized by HMRC after the pairs' massive tax avoidance was uncovered
The men were sentenced to a combined eight years and ten months at Liverpool Crown Court on Friday having admitted to fraud offences at a previous hearing.
WhatsApp messages recovered from the men’s phones showed them callously boasting about scamming customers.
One message from Barnes's phone said: 'In a few hours we’ll be in 1st class, F*** the peasants'.
While a second message read: 'Platinum luggage tags, that’s how UK teeth whitening roll.'
The messages also revealed that they knew their product was dangerous and they would face prison time if caught by HMRC.
In an exchange Barnes said: 'They said they used it for 30 minutes and its taken the enamel off their teeth, dentist said they need new teeth.'
Ramage added: 'We’re on the first plane out of here if they (HMRC) come knocking. We’re talking millions and years in jail.'
Barnes, from Formby, was sentenced to four years and four months, while Ramage, who had moved to Portugal, was jailed for four years and six months.
Zoe Gascoyne, Director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: 'Barnes and Ramage knew they were stealing from taxpayers and selling dangerous products at the same time.
'Their messages show complete disregard for the hard-working majority who pay the taxes that fund our public services.
'Hiding stolen money in offshore accounts doesn’t put anyone beyond reach and my team will now work with partners at the Crown Prosecution Service to recover the money they stole.'
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