A CRIME gang operating in Southampton tried to con £2m of taxpayers’ money from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), a court heard.

Five people, all from eastern Europe, are alleged to have been involved in a conspiracy to open bank accounts and adopt, create or hijack individual identities.

They are also accused of applying for self-assessment tax rebates.

Southampton Crown Court heard that they had got away with hundreds of thousands of pounds.

One of the defendants, Ruslanas Bobrovas, 37, a qualified boxing coach from Lithuania, provided tax assistance to eastern Europeans who came to the UK seeking employment.

Foreign nationals can register with HMRC for tax purposes and claim back any tax they have overpaid by submitting a self-assessment tax return at the end of each financial year. Individuals were asked to provide identification details to the organised gang, who used them to open bank accounts fraudulently or instructed them to open bank accounts themselves to be controlled by the group.

Gareth Munday, prosecuting, said that more than 200 bank accounts were identified as linked to the gang, with more than 700 applications for fraudulent repayments being made for in excess of £2m.

Mr Munday said that the defendants used two methods to defraud HMRC of selfassessment tax money.

He said that fraudulent claims of foreign nationals, who were mainly genuine individuals, were submitted to HMRC claiming false repayments, while the second technique saw the gang obtaining information on legitimate tax agents’ electronic database to hijack their client’s details.

They would then obtain fraudulent repayments by rerouting or diverting repayments to a bank account under the control of the gang, the court heard.

Mr Munday said: “Thankfully many of those fraudulent claims for rebates were stopped by HMRC before they were processed, but still many were successful and the fraud got away with hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of rebates.”

Officers arrested the defendants after police raids on properties in the south linked them to the fraud.

Bobrovas, of The Birches, West End Road, Southampton, who also uses the surname Sluzbyn, denies being concerned in arranging and facilitating the acquisition, retention, use or control of criminal property.

His partner Tatjana Novikova, 45, and her son Aruras Novikovas, 24, both also of The Birches, deny four charges, including conspiracy to cheat the revenue.

Besik Zveiba, 41, of Arundel House, Kent Street, denies cheating the revenue, along with Estonian national Kardo Anderson.

Anderson, 25, of Mansel Road East, Southampton, also denies conspiracy to cheat the revenue.

The trial is expected to last seven weeks.

Proceeding.