24 April 2026
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has issued a press release regarding four businessmen who have been convicted and jailed for their roles in a multimillion-pound VAT fraud scheme used to fund the purchase of gold bullion, diamonds, luxury cars, and expensive properties.
Leslie Thompson, Graeme Cullen, and Graham Newall were convicted earlier this year for their involvement in the operation, which spanned from September 2015 to June 2017, during which the group evaded more than £8.8 million in VAT. A fourth man, Martin Lang, admitted to a more limited role in the criminal activity, which took place between February and December 2016.
The men were employees of Linear Services, a West Lothian–based company that provided payroll services for 27 employment agencies. During the two-year period, the company charged its clients significant amounts for VAT, however, the money was not paid to HMRC. Following their convictions, the four men were collectively sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.
The case was uncovered after a lengthy and complex investigation led by HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, working in partnership with Police Scotland’s Specialist Crime Division.
Payroll companies handle some of the most sensitive personal and financial data. In addition, payroll practitioners are often responsible for distributing large sums of money to employees, HMRC or other payroll organisations. This means having good security protocols in place is essential. The key is to have technical controls, processes and compliance frameworks in line with UK GDPR. Some examples of strong security protocols include:
- staff only having access to what they need
- multi-factor authentication should be mandatory for all systems
- strong password policies
- dual authorisation for payroll runs and bank file approvals
- segregation of duties to avoid one person controlling the full payroll process
- audit trails for every payment action
- training staff continuously on security protocols
- responding quickly to breaches
- strong compliance and governance controls with third parties, throughout the supply of services chain.
HMRC urges anyone with information about suspected tax fraud to report it to HMRC via GOV.uk
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