ARA freezes assets of suspected construction industry fraudsters
The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA ) has been granted an Interim Receiving Order (IRO) at Belfast High Court on assets worth an estimated £500,000 gross which it alleged to the Court were derived from the proceeds of construction industry fraud and the evasion of VAT .
An Interim Receiver has now taken control of properties and other assets held by Marcus Boreland of Hamilton Park , Ballymoney, County Antrim and his brother Rodney Boreland who resides at Trinity Drive, also in Ballymoney.
In its application to the Court, ARA successfully argued that Marcus and Rodney Boreland (the Borelands) had used their building contracting businesses to carry out fraud within the construction industry in order to evade VAT and Income Tax.ARA also argued that in a short period of time, the Borelands had acquired substantial personal wealth which appeared to exceed their legitimate income and that they were suspected to also to be involved in loansharking and drug smuggling.
Assets frozen include:
- the Hamilton Park property in Ballymoney, County Antrim;
- the Trinity Drive property in Ballymoney;
- a property located at Garry Drive, Ballymoney;
- a property located at Raceview Court, Ballymoney;
- a property in Turkey;
- proceeds of the sale of a property situated at Castlehill Terrace, Ballymoney;
- proceeds from the sale of a property situated at Drumvale Road, Bendooragh, Ballymoney;
- monies or other security contained in, or which have passed through, various accounts; and
- a number of vehicles, including a Toyota Rav-4, a Suzuki Grand Vitara 2.0 Tdi, and a Volkswagen Golf S SDi
The net value of these assets is estimated to be £250,000.
ARAAssistant Director Alan McQuillan said: "This is the first large scale income tax and VAT evasion case undertaken by the Agency in Northern Ireland. We have alleged that the Borelands have been heavily involved in the fraudulent use of Construction industry Scheme documents and other criminal activity.
"This case clearly demonstrates that the Agency is prepared to go after the profits of any crime regardless of its nature and that together with our partners in the Organised Crime Taskforce are determined to play our part in ensuring that crime does not pay.
"The Borelands’ cases were referred to the Agency by PSNI and we have been assisted by them and Inland Revenue at every stage of our investigation, resulting in successful action in the High Court.
"The Receiver will now carry on the investigation and provide an independent report on these issues."
