15 Arrests prompted by 250 strong team of HMRC investigators

If I hadn't seen the official press release on HMRC's website I wouldn't have believed it. Despite all the ongoing cut backs HMRC can afford to allocate around 250 investigators to a single long-running enquiry - codenamed Operation Enigma.

Last week 15 arrests were made when the HMRC team were assisted by officers from a number of police forces, in carrying out over 20 property searches in Rochdale, Manchester, Bradford, Southport and Nottingham as part of the enquiry.

The HMRC investigators were from HMRC’s criminal investigation team. Little further information has been provided as the investigation is continuing.

We might not like HMRC's ability to enquire into our tax affairs but who would pay tax if there was no such threat or penalty for failing to do so. I'm pleased to note that it's not just the little guys being targeted. It's great to hear that HMRC do still have the resources to tackle the threat of widespread tax evasion. Although the press release references money-laundering and the proceeds of crime, HMRC's involvement suggests that the crime is tax evasion.