RE: Boo13 Oct 2020 12:27
"Allegations that factory owners are involved in other types of fraud
.
Three respondents190 said that some factory owners in Leicester were committing VAT fraud. Witness 413 described three factories within Leicester and said that they were “engaged in large scale VAT fraud in a way that even the HMRC would be unable to detect”.
Witness 258, a machine operator, made a startling allegation that in one factory there was “a hidden false wall that hid additional workers when checked by HMRC/immigration”.
Allegations about the extent of Boohoo’s knowledge
Of those who responded to the Call for Evidence via the questionnaire, a large number were of
the view that Boohoo either was aware of the sorts of conditions within their supply chain that
have been described above or that, with proper due diligence, they could have easily discovered
them. A number of witnesses took the view that Boohoo turned a “blind eye” to certain practices 191"