Sin Bin: Scots VAT fraudster fails in bid to hold on to £1m mansion

The Crown Office will now sell the luxury home in Bridge of Allan that Voudouri, 47, left behind when he fled to Northern Cyprus in 2012 following his conviction for running a £10.3m VAT scam.

The fugitive was arrested last year after being caught trying to cross the border with Turkey with a fake passport.

Now serving an 11 year jail sentence back in Scotland, he has been involved in a protracted legal battle to hold on to the property.

The property was subject to a confiscation order served on Voudouri in 2006 for £ 1,292, 942 under the Proceeds of Crime Act following his conviction for a previous VAT scam.

However, Voudouri has long tried to claim that the house is actually owned by a third party in a bid to stop the Crown Office from selling it.

The fraudster and his associates argument centred around the claim that the property was actually owned by a US tax haven called Trustunion.

The Delaware-based trust is owned by Nicos Savva, Voudouri’s father-in-law, who claimed Voudouri was only ever a trustee of the property and it was in fact owned by Mr Savva through the trust.

Trustunion was represented at a hearing at the Court of Session by Voudouri associate Jim McDonald, himself a convicted counterfeiter.

But in a written ruling, Lord Stewart said he agreed with previous verdicts by judges that Voudouri had provided the funds for the house purchase.

He said: “At the hearing before me, in the course of discussing the circumstances about the purchase of the dwelling house it was noted that Trustunion – in the person of Mr Savva – had appointed Michael Voudouri as Trustunion’s attorney, with ample powers, on January 21, 2002.

In 2012 he admitted claiming VAT on bogus transactions in what judges described as a “complex money laundering operation,” moving money into foreign bank accounts.

In June last year he was sentenced to 10 years for money laundering, and a further 18 months for failing to appear for sentencing.

The Crown Office understood Trustunion are planning to appeal Lord Stewart’s decision.