Mortgage Fraudster spent £115,000 on ….. pottery

An internationally-ranked chess player who swindled £750,000 through mortgage and tax fraud has been jailed.

Robin Moss spent more than £115,000 of his ill-gotten gains on collectible pottery, another £89,000 on gold coins and some £19,000 on jewellery.

Moss, formerly of Melton Mowbray, has been sentenced in his absence to 10 years in prison and an international arrest warrant has been issued through Interpol, says HM Revenue and Customs.

Moss, 58, lied about his income, made bogus claims for unsuspecting clients, and provided false documents in fraudulent mortgage applications, HMRC says.

A jury at Nottingham Crown Court found Moss guilty of multiple counts of tax, fraud and theft offences in just 55 minutes at an earlier trial. His wife Liliana Moss was sentenced to seven months in prison, suspended for 12 months, after previously admitting laundering £115,000.

The main defendant, formerly from Leicestershire but now living in Poland, persuaded one client to pay their £53,000 tax bill through him but paid it straight into his bank account rather than to HMRC.

Other clients had their HMRC details used by Moss to make false tax repayments, which he had paid into his own bank accounts.

Nick Stone, operational lead in HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service, comments: "Robin Moss abused his position of trust to steal from clients and the taxpayer.

"Tax fraud is never a victimless crime and the eye watering sums he spent on pottery and gold should have been funding the public services we all rely on. I hope this sentence serves as a warning to the minority of corrupt professionals who wrongly believe they can use their knowledge to commit fraud."