After 9 years of escape, a woman was arrested for tax and VAT offenses amounting to over a billion pounds. She was part of a gang that transferred money through bank accounts in the UK, Andorra, Dubai, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Portugal and the US
Sarah Penitza, 48, the most wanted woman in Britain for her part in a VAT fraud of £ 1 billion (about NIS 4.5 billion), was jailed for eight years after nine years of escape.
Penica was convicted of conspiracy to steal money in 2013 and fled to Spain before her trial ended. She lived as a rich woman for nine years in Spain before her arrest last February. She was sentenced to eight years in absentia in 2013 and has now started serving the sentence in recent weeks after being arrested by Spanish police.
She was part of a gang that transferred money through bank accounts in the UK, Andorra, Dubai, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Portugal and the US, she and her 17 partners received prison sentences totaling 135 years for VAT fraud. Prosecutor Stephen Upted said: “During the trial on May 22, 2013 the defendant was allowed to leave the country and had to return to England on May 28, she did not do so and on that date an order was issued.”
She has been hiding in Andorra and Spain for the past nine years and lives under a false identity, she was caught after the British police in conjunction with the Spanish police identified her in a village in the Tarragona area of Spain.
Simon York, the UK’s director of fraud investigations, said after the hearing: “Sarah Phenicia helped launder millions of pounds of stolen money and thought she could escape her crimes. She hid for nine years – but we did not stop searching. We worked tirelessly alongside the Spanish authorities to find her “.
“This is a testament to the dedication of our policemen who work hard every day to ensure that the most serious fraud does not go unpunished, and we continue to relentlessly pursue the small minority who think it is acceptable to steal taxpayers’ money.”