Shop owner convicted of large-scale VAT probe has case to pay back money dropped

A shop owner convicted after a large-scale VAT probe will not pay any money back after prosecutors withdrew their case.

Mohammed Mirza, 60, filed bogus declarations for his store in Glasgow’s Gorbals and another in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, in April 2014.

There was a £4m difference in sales, resulting in him not paying £725,000 of VAT that he should have.

Mirza – an influential businessman in the Scottish Asian community – pleaded guilty in 2023 at Glasgow Sheriff Court to submitting VAT returns to HMRC which were false and not an accurate reflection of sales.

The charge spanned between December 2011 and April 2014.

Since the conviction, the Crown have sought to claim the cash benefited by Mirza at a series of confiscation hearings.

However, prosecutor Brian Duffy made a motion to withdraw confiscation proceedings.

He said this was done “after careful consideration and reviewing the evidence available to the Crown”.

Sheriff Barry Divers replied: “You are entitled to tell me to mind my own business, but can I ask how this is, as it has been ongoing for months?”

Mr Duffy stated: “I can just repeat what I just said.”

Peter Gray KC, defending, told the hearing that he only found out about the motion to withdraw and did not oppose it.

The advocate later stated that £900,000 of his client’s money has been seized by police and is held by HMRC as a result of these proceedings.

Mr Gray added: “Mr Mirza’s financial circumstances right now are that he has a number of creditors.”

The hearing was told that the power to return the cash is with HMRC rather than the court.

Mr Gray also made a motion for expenses in relation to the confiscation process to be paid to his client.

A previous hearing was told that Mirza will not be sent to prison when he is sentenced.

The matter was deferred for a hearing on expenses as well as sentencing next month.

Mirza, of the city’s Pollokshields, is ordained to appear.

A spokesperson for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service: “After careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, including the available admissible evidence, the Procurator Fiscal decided that the motion for confiscation should be withdrawn.”

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