A man has been ordered to pay back £600,000 in unpaid tax after a raid of his home and the seizure of £1million from several bank accounts in one of Scotland's largest ever tax settlement cases.
Goljar Singh, 44, was tracked by police after several of his bank accounts were detected as having received large cash deposits. The Civil Recovery Unit (CRU) and HMRC found the payments were coming from the same post office within a matter of weeks in March 2021.
By May, officers carried out a search warrant of his home and found several suit cases containing over 3,000 envelopes stuffed with cash amounting to more than £690,000. Singh agreed £600,000 of the sum was recoverable, of which he agreed to hand over.
Another £1million was seized from bank accounts belonging to the East Lothian man. It is one of the largest settlements in the unit's history. Civil provisions within the Proceeds of Crimes Act allow for a non-conviction based civil recovery regime.
Anne-Louise House, the head of the CRU, said: “This case has been an excellent example of inter-agency working between CRU, HMRC and Police Scotland. The resolution represents one of the largest cash sums recovered by the unit.
“The money recovered from this individual has been transferred to the Scottish Consolidated Fund which invests money to support communities across Scotland, through the Scottish Government’s CashBack for Communities Programme.
“The Civil Recovery Unit works with other law enforcement agencies to identify and recover the proceeds of crime. Settlements such as this contribute to the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce’s goal of reducing the harm caused by criminal activity.”
A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “This is an outstanding result and underlines the value of working closely with our colleagues in the Civil Recovery Unit and HMRC. These investigations can be challenging and complex but with specialist teams working together, we can achieve exceptional outcomes.
“Police Scotland’s Serious and Organised Crime Financial Investigation Unit is committed to targeting individuals and companies who profit from illicit activities, and we will use all available resources to ensure this does not happen. We will continue to work alongside all our partners to deter, disrupt and detect those involved in crime and seek to recover any funds derived from it.”
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