Fraudster sock company boss is ordered to pay back £90m

A SOCK manufacturer whose £150million VAT fraud and fake designer goods scam was smashed after a swoop in Scotland has been ordered to pay back more than half of his ill-gotten fortune.

- By Richard Elias

Arif Patel is in Dubai after being convicted and sentenced to a 20-year jail term in his absence.

Yesterday, a judge ordered him to hand over £90m as part of a Confiscation Order applied for by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The collapse of Arif’s criminal empire began two decades ago when police swooped on a van in Dumfriesshire in 2005.

Inside the vehicle, pulled over on the A74 near the village of Ecclefechan, officers discovered a vast array of counterfeit goods, simulating brands such as Prada, Armani, Lacoste, Calvin Klein, Walt Disney, Nike and Levi Strauss.

The consignment had heading for a Glasgow-based wholesaler.

Investigators believe it was just one of hundreds of similar trips organised over many years by Patel, originally from Preston in Lancashire, and his gang.

His Preston-based firm, Faisaltex Ltd, was at the heart of a criminal empire.

Around the time of the seizure near Ecclefechan, a number of containers filled with fake designer clothes were stopped at several ports, including Liverpool, Southampton and Felixstowe.