A Co Clare man who was accused of Britain's biggest VAT fraud has had £9 million (€13.3 million) in assets frozen by the British Assets Recovery Agency.
Dylan Creaven (33), with addresses in Ennis and London, has been accused by the Irish and British authorities of being behind a complex VAT fraud that generated millions of VAT payments that went undeclared.
He was initially accused of stealing up to £162 million (€238 million) from British taxpayers, although he was eventually prosecuted in relation to £14 million (€20.6 million).
He was acquitted last May on 28 charges. He told a court in London that he had traded in good faith and was "distraught" to find himself in the dock.
He has also been targeted by gardaí and is currently awaiting a High Court ruling in the Republic relating to a challenge he has taken against the freezing of more than €20 million in assets by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Despite being acquitted of the criminal charges in Britain, Cab's case against him has continued. It has now emerged that similar civil proceedings have been initiated in Britain against the businessman, who is originally from Clare and grew up there.
The assets frozen include cash, properties in London and Spain, and land in Dubai.
The British agency has alleged that "99 per cent of the business conducted by Silicon Technologies Europe Ltd, a company set up by Mr Creaven of which he is a director, involved fraudulent trades".
The assets valued at £9 million frozen include a property in Knightsbridge, London, which is valued at an estimated £1.2 million (€1.8 million). A property in Marbella, Spain, bought for an estimated £1.8 million (€2.7 million) has also been frozen, as have two plots of land at the Emirates Hills Golf Club, Dubai.
Undertakings were also given not to deal with money currently held in a number of bank accounts and which amounted to more than £6 million (€8.8 million) without recourse to the Assets Recovery Agency first.
A spokeswoman for the agency in London told The Irish Times that the authorities in England referred Mr Creaven's case to it because the criminal case against him had been exhausted.
The agency maintains that despite Mr Creaven's acquittal, the assets he has accrued are the proceeds of fraudulent activity.
It is currently in the process of trying to confiscate these assets.
The spokeswoman was unable to say when the civil action was due before the courts. "It's a case with many complexities," she said.
The alleged fraud, known as the VAT carousel fraud, involved high-value computer components. The goods were moved between various companies to generate VAT payments, which, it is claimed, were not declared to the British authorities.
Mr Creaven, a software millionaire, has always protested his innocence.
The Criminal Assets Bureau's interim order, which he has challenged, is in respect of €22 million, almost all of which is cash on deposit. He was arrested in London in November 2002. After his arrest he voluntarily repatriated €14 million from New York.
The bureau's case against Mr Creaven has resulted in protracted legal wrangling.
In November 2004, he succeeded in the Supreme Court in having search warrants overturned that had been issued to Cab to search properties owned by him. Documents seized by Cab were either returned to Mr Creaven or destroyed.
