A Chatteris recycling company boss jailed for a £1.1 million VAT fraud has been given a choice to either pay back over £217,000 or face two more years in prison.

Brian Brader, 36, formerly of Tithe Road, was jailed after HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigation discovered he used fake invoices to support false VAT claims filed from his March-based firm, NKB Recycling.

A court has now ruled that £131,000 from the sale of a property he had bought for £94,500 in February 2013 to rent out should be forfeited together with a further £85,000.

Brader claimed to be exporting waste products such as cardboard and plastics to China and India through NKB Recycling – which burned down in 2014 - but HMRC checks revealed fake invoices and fraudulent business records.

The investigation also revealed that Brader had drawn an £82,000 salary without paying any Income Tax or National Insurance.

Brader was arrested at his home in 2013 and initially claimed all his paperwork for the VAT repayments were correct but later admitted producing more than £350,000 worth of fake invoices for transactions that had never happened.

He later admitted Cheating the Public Revenue and was jailed for four years in March last year and was disqualified from acting as a company director for eight years.

He was ordered to pay back the proceeds of his crime at a confiscation hearing at Ipswich Crown Court yesterday (February 23).

The court ruled he had swindled £1,142,451 over a period of three years.

Brader had been left to foot a £500,000 bill after NKB Recycling at Creek Fen Business Park, March, burned down in June 2014.

Two lorries, a forklift truck and specialist equipment were destroyed in the fire which was believed to have started by a faulty van that was parked inside the unit.

The fire quickly spread to the rest of the unit, destroying its roof and leaving a sea of smouldering wreckage inside.

Brader said after the blaze: “I left at 4.55pm and my colleague put the vehicle inside at 5.10pm. When he left everything was fine.

“I got a call at 5.40pm saying the unit was on fire and rushed straight here. I could see the smoke from Chatteris.

“When I arrived the firefighters were already here. The unit was totally alight.”

After he was jailed last year Paul Barton, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “Brader had a total disregard for the rules; he faked invoices to claim over £1million of taxpayers’ money which should have gone into public services. He also brazenly paid himself a huge salary without paying a penny in tax. This is simply not acceptable when other, honest businesses pay what they owe.

“Tax fraud is a serious crime and HMRC will continue to pursue those individuals or businesses that attack the tax system. Anyone with information about people who may be involved in tax fraud can contact HMRC’s 24-hour Hotline on 0800 59 5000.”

Footnote: There is no appeal against default jail sentences issued in confiscation orders and the order for repayment remains in place after the default sentence is served by the fraudster.

If the assets held by the convicted criminal at the time of the order are less than the benefit derived from the fraud, then any future assets can be confiscated up to the value of the benefit of the fraud.