FIVE fraudsters who pretended to be making a Hollywood blockbuster starring Scots daytime TV star Andrea McLean as part of a £2.8 million VAT and film tax credits scam have been jailed.
Inspectors were told A-listers from Hollywood and McLean would be starring in a £19.6 million production that would be shot in the UK.
However, the film, Landscape Of Lies, was never made and the only footage shot was seven minutes of "completely un-usable quality" filmed in a flat and costing just £5000.
McLean, a former presenter of the weather on GMTV and guest panellist on Loose Women, was duped into signing up for the role of a bisexual therapist called Dr Audrey Grey.
Bashar al Issa, 34, a former Iraqi national who is now British, of London, described as the orchestrator of the fraud, was jailed for six-and-a-half years at Southwark Crown Court.
Actor Aoife Madden, 31, a British and Irish national, of London, said to have submitted a pack of lies to inspectors about the project, was sentenced to four years and eight months.
Two other defendants in the scam – Tariq Hassan, 52, a Pakistani national, of Essex, and Osama al Baghdady, 51, an Iraqi national, of Manchester, received four-year jail sentences.
A fifth defendant, architect Ian Sherwood, 53, of Manchester, who allowed his offices to be used for the fraud, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail.
All five were also disqualified from holding company directorships – al Issa for 10 years; Madden for eight years, and Hassan, al Baghdady and Sherwood for five years.
The court heard Madden pled guilty at the start of the trial to two charges of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue between April 2010 and April 2011 related to VAT repayments and film tax credits.
Al Issa was convicted on both charges after a trial.
Hassan was convicted of one charge – conspiracy to cheat the revenue in relation to film tax credits.
Al Baghdady and Sherwood were convicted of one charge of conspiracy to cheat the revenue in relation to VAT repayments.
The court heard Stuart Knight, a script writer who had no idea of the fraud, was hired in January 2010 by Madden and al Issa to write the script. He was told shooting would take place in Egypt and Omar Sharif would play one of the characters in the film, prosecutor Rebecca Chalkley told the court.
Ms Chalkley said that among a series of false claims submitted in support of the scam was a statement they had secured the services of Doctor Who director Colin Teague and his contract had been finalised. Ms Chalkley said the claim was fantasy.
At one stage Madden had said she was related to the actor Sinead Cusack and was "going to use this to try to get her husband Jeremy Irons involved," Ms Chalkley said.
She added: "There was no truth in either of those individuals being involved in the project."
Judge Juliet May said innocent actors had given their services to the bogus project, never suspecting they were being exploited to create a "realistic background" for a fraud.
Selva Ramasamy, defending Madden, who has appeared in a Royal Shakespeare Company production, said her commitment to the performing arts lay behind her involvement.
She said she came from a close and supportive family who live in Ireland and her imprisonment in the UK would be "tough". She said: "There is no suggestion of a lavish lifestyle against her in this case and the prosecution accept her involvement in this case was not fraudulent at the outset."
Raquel Simpson, for Sherwood, said there was no evidence he received any financial benefit from the fraud.
She added: "Mr Sherwood's culpability was to allow himself to be used by Bashar Al Issa."
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