Case No. EWCA-Crim-2366

, the appellant was convicted of conspiracy to cheat, and argued that the judge ought to have had regard to the 7 year maximum for the statutory VAT offence. The Court rejected this argument at paragraph 16: “It seems to us that the position in cases such as this, where the allegation is that many millions, not merely one million, has been lost to the country’s revenues is that it is entirely appropriate for the court to approach the matter on the basis that a conspiracy to cheat is the appropriate charge and that entitles it to conclude that a sentence in excess of the statutory maximum for the single substantive offence would be available and proper. This court made it clear in Dosanjh and repeated it in Czyzewski that that was a permissible course to take. The judge in the present case was accordingly entitled, as a matter of principle, to conclude that he was not constrained by the statutory maximum for the substantive offences. He had, however, as he did, to take it into account as assisting him in coming to a conclusion as to where he should place the appropriate sentence.”26.In