{"id":391105,"date":"2026-10-24T16:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/hunting-the-fraudster-who-stole-millions-in-vat-behind-the-investigation-bbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T16:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T15:00:20","slug":"hunting-the-fraudster-who-stole-millions-in-vat-behind-the-investigation-bbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/hunting-the-fraudster-who-stole-millions-in-vat-behind-the-investigation-bbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunting the fraudster who stole millions in VAT &#8211; Behind The Investigation | BBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.ytimg.com\/vi\/Z7IUjkHTQUw\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Hunting the fraudster who stole millions in VAT - Behind The Investigation | BBC News\"><br \/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Z7IUjkHTQUw\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>Where is convicted fraudster, Arif Patel?<br \/>\nCriminals defrauding the tax system costs the UK billions of pounds in lost revenue each year.<br \/>\nThe BBC\u2019s File on 4 Investigates tells the story of one of the country\u2019s most prolific tax fraudsters, who stole tens of millions of pounds of public money and seemingly got away with it.<br \/>\nIn 2023, Arif Patel, from Preston, Lancashire, was convicted of attempting to steal more than \u00a390m of public money and was sentenced to 20 years in jail.<br \/>\nThe judge described Patel as being \u2018breathtakingly arrogant\u2019 and \u2018totally dishonest\u2019.<br \/>\nBut Patel wasn\u2019t there to hear this condemnation and he hasn\u2019t served a single day of his sentence because he fled to Dubai more than a decade ago. <\/p>\n<p>In this episode of BBC News: Behind the Investigation, Melanie Stewart-Smith speaks to journalist Ben Robinson, who tells the story of how he got onto the trail of the fugitive fraudster who stole from all of us. <\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our channel here: https:\/\/bbc.in\/bbcnews<\/p>\n<p>For the latest news download the BBC News app or visit BBC.com\/news<\/p>\n<p>#BBCNews #Fraud #investigation #dubai #uk <\/p>\n<p>00:00 The fraudster who got away<br \/>\n00:55 Meet the reporter who chased the story for 20 years<br \/>\n01:29 Who is Arif Patel? The Preston tycoon<br \/>\n02:37 How the VAT carousel fraud worked<br \/>\n03:59 Selling Swiss hats to the Swiss<br \/>\n04:54 Hundreds of officers raid the empire<br \/>\n05:31 Allowed on bail to Dubai and never returned<br \/>\n06:12 &quot;I&#8217;m a tiger, not a caged tiger&quot;<br \/>\n07:56 Convicted in his absence: 20 years<br \/>\n10:05 The strange websites praising Arif Patel<br \/>\n12:56 A real photo shows his life of luxury<br \/>\n14:50 The anti-corruption champion reacts<br \/>\n15:54 Dubai&#8217;s response and final thoughts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Where is convicted fraudster, Arif Patel? Criminals defrauding the tax system costs the UK billions of pounds in lost revenue each year. The BBC\u2019s File on 4 Investigates tells the story of one of the country\u2019s most prolific tax fraudsters, who stole tens of millions of pounds of public money and seemingly got away with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":391106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128810],"tags":[],"actors":[],"class_list":["post-391105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bbc-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hunting the fraudster who stole millions in VAT - Behind The Investigation | BBC News | News ISC Videos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch Hunting the fraudster who stole millions in VAT - Behind The Investigation | BBC News for free, here on News ISC. 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