We reported this seller to HMRC VAT Fraud team in 2014. Their account was removed in 2016.

HMRC has gifted this seller at least £300,000 in unpaid VAT. That’s 1.3% of the total £22.5m budget HMRC have allocated to tackle this fraud over the next 5 year

Case Study

eBayer Seller caseway is making sales in the region of £705,240.00 per year. This equates to £117,540 of VAT a year. They started trading on eBay.co.uk 5 years ago on 27 May, 2010.

caseway

The company name they use does not exist in the UK and has no legal status. The address is a virtual PO Box Address provided by Pay As You Go Post a division of 1st Secretarial Ltd and no VAT number has been provided.

In their email correspondence they give the following name and address:

Theo Yirik
SAFESTORE
Office 1a
Bounds Green Industrial Estate
Bounds Green Road
New Southgate
London
N11 2UD

This address is a self-storage unit provided by Safestore

Secret Shopper

We purchased a product for them that was paid to the PayPal account of r_trade_r@yahoo.co.uk

We asked caseway to provide a VAT Invoice on several occasions; however they failed provide a VAT invoice on each occasion.

Questions for HMRC to Answer:

  1. Who has been paying the £117,540 annual VAT for Caseway for the past 5 years?