A GANG who set up fake clothing companies and hijacked the identities of legitimate firms have been sentenced for a £600,000 international VAT fraud ring.

The men, including two from Blackburn, were pretending to import and export goods from various bogus companies with addresses in Lancashire, France, Spain and Belgium.

But HM Revenue and Customs investigators found the goods never existed and the paperwork used to demonstrate trading and make fraudulent VAT claims was faked.

Naseer Ahmed, 39, of Whalley New Road, Blackburn, was jailed for 16 months at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court and Ifran Mirza, 33, of Johnston Close, Blackburn, was given a nine-month suspended sentence for his role.

The gang also illegally copied the letterheads and logos of genuine companies to try and dupe the taxman.

Two men from Preston, one from Stockport and one from Newcastle were also jailed for a total of eight-and-a-half years between them.

A spokesman for HMRC said: “This was a professionally organised and sustained attack on the UK tax system.

“The group had gone to great lengths to facilitate this fraud.

“They had not only created fake businesses and attempted to legitimise them by producing false invoices and paperwork, they even hijacked the identities of genuine local businesses, illegally copying letterheads and logos and using false VAT numbers to give their paperwork the veneer of authenticity.”