Exclusive: Ex-SAS troops' cleaning firm acused of £7m National Insurance scam

Jun 29 2008 By Raymond Hainey

A CLEANING firm run by ex-SAS soldiers is being probed over claims of a £7million tax and National Insurance scam.

Tax inspectors are investigating whether money was siphoned off from Craft Services Group to buy property in Turkey instead of being paid to the Government.

Revenue and Customs were tipped off by a former employee who was refused unemployment benefit despite her payslips showing NI deductions for three-and-a-half years.

Not a penny had been paid by the company on her behalf.

And wage slips seen by the Sunday Mail show dozens of casual staff sharing the same date of birth and just three NI numbers between them.

Hundreds of staff were made redundant when the company's subsidiary Craft (Northern), based in Wishaw, Lanarkshire, went into liquidation this month. It ran security and cleaning services.

Insolvency expert Stephen Hunt has been called in by HMRevenue and Customs (HMRC).

He said: "We have been appointed to investigate allegations that the firm had failed to declare or to pay £7million in VAT, PAYE and NI.

"The allegations are extremely serious. I am investigating why the company invested large sums of money in property in Turkey."

Susan Nicol, 37, was refused unemployment benefits after being made redundant.

Susan, of Cleland, Lanarkshire, said: "Every week on my payslip the tax and National Insurance had come off.

But I was told I wasn't entitled to anything."

Craft director Vince Moody, 50, is based in Hertfordshire.

Susan'smumAnn, 58, was a Craft manager. Ann, also from Cleland, said: "Mr Moody and some of the other bosses are meant to have been in the SAS but we never saw them."

Moody told us: "If you want to talk to me, talk to my lawyer."