HMRC staff crunch simplifies life for UK tax evaders

Britain's Labour Party has asked the government to ''get a grip'' of the state of the state's revenue after it emerged that the UK treasury department has just four staffers to track the country's most wanted tax evaders.

Treasury minister David Gauke on Friday admitted in a written answer to parliament that the 'fugitive unit team' of HM Revenue & Customs has only four full-time officers trying to catch 124 tax fugitives.

''The HMRC Fugitive Unit team consists of one higher officer and two officers managed by one senior investigation officer. The team focuses not only on the fugitives publicised in the Most Wanted campaign but also on all current HMRC fugitives. There are 124 HMRC fugitives,'' he said.

Gauke was further obliged to admit that Revenue & Customs has no idea where 11 of its 32 most wanted tax fugitives are; although six of them are suspectedly living in the UK.

The most wanted list was launched in August 2012, when Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs published an FBI-style rogues' gallery for the first time. But HMRC has so far managed to secure only four arrests or convictions, figures released by Gauke showed.

Labour on Friday night urged ministers to get control of the situation as people would be concerned about the lack of action on tax avoidance and evasion, which are major priorities of the coalition government.

Shabana Mahmood, the shadow treasury minister who put the question in parliament and obtained the figures through a written ­parliamentary question, said, "People will be very concerned. With just four out of the 32 people on its most wanted list arrested or convicted, ministers clearly need to get a grip.

"At a time when families are facing a cost-of-living crisis and the deficit is high this is just not good enough," she added.

Ministers vowed that the 19 men and one woman who had cheated the country of £765 million in tax would be pursued ''relentlessly''.

The latest addition to the most wanted list is John Sabin, who was involved in a £26 million cigarette smuggling fraud and has been missing for 12 years since failing to appear for sentencing in court. He was sentenced to four years imprisonment in his absence, and HMRC believes he is still living in the UK.

Criminal proceedings against six of the most wanted fugitives have not been possible because Britain does not have extradition treaties in place with the countries where they now reside. Two fugitives are in countries which do not extradite for tax offences, Gauke explained.