VAT crook must repay £7m

A Staffordshire gang member has been ordered to pay back almost £7 million raised through an international VAT fraud.

Raymond Cox, who lived in a mansion near Stone, will have to hand over everything from a helicopter to his Rolex watch after customs officials served him with a confiscation order.

He will also lose other trapping of his millionaire lifestyle including a luxury yacht, a collection of performance cars and a villa in Spain.

Cox is currently serving a 12-and-a-half year jail sentence for his part in a VAT fraud thought to have netted him and five accomplices £85 million. The 38-year-old was arrested at his plush home, New House Farm in Morrilow Heath, in 2002, following one of HM Revenue and Customs' biggest-ever investigations. He was jailed with five other men for a total of 47-and-a-half years in 2007.

HM Revenue bosses say Cox's confiscation order, served this week, has been the largest in the case so far. The assets he is due to lose include overseas companies, holdings and accounts totalling £3.8million, the villa in Spain worth around £260,000, a Rolex watch valued at £2,500 and £2.6million in cash, partly following the sale of New House Farm.

He must also surrender a helicopter, a Sealine motor yacht and a collection of £100,000-plus performance cars which included an Aston Martin, two Bentleys and a Mercedes. The conviction followed one of the biggest-ever investigations by the Revenue. Assistant chief investigations officer Andrew Pavlinic said: "The confiscations for this gang and for Cox in particular show our work, in partnership with the Prosecutions Office, doesn't stop when criminals are sentenced."

Cox was ordered to repay £6,831,340 in total. He must pay £2.6million by February 23 and the remaining balance by January 25 2010 or serve a further 28 days in prison. However, an HM Revenue spokeswoman said the ruling was a "token gesture" as his assets had already been seized and he was complying with officials.

Along with Cox's confiscation, his fellow gang member Brett Simon Issitt from Todmorden, Lancashire, was ordered to repay £107,963.95 this week. Issitt must pay £57,000 within 28 days and the remaining balance within 12 months or serve a further 12 months in jail.