A MIDLAND VAT fraud gang stole £12 million from taxpayers by importing thousands of cars and selling them on without paying the tax, a court heard.

Wayne Murden, 47, of Abelwell Street, Walsall and Russell Bakewell, 47, of Walnall Road, Landywood, Great Wyrley, along with Steven Hague, 49, Peter Green, 46 both from Bradford, all pleaded guilty to creating and operating an illegal network of companies.

Murden was given a 12-month custodial sentence suspended for two years, Bakewell was jailed for 30 months, and Hague and Green were both sentenced to 21 months in prison.

All were banned from being a company director for four years

Two Walsall members of the gang, Reginald Turner, 62, from Broadway Well, along with his daughter 32-year-old mother-of-two Tammy Copson, of Rowley Street, also pleaded guilty to the offences and will be sentenced at a later hearing.

Those six, along with 40-year old Jayne Mitchell, from Selby in North Yorkshire, who was jailed for ten years, were caught after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) began investigations into the accounts of a number of the companies they controlled.