Mazher Raja has been jailed for six years

A west London gang master who cheated the tax man of up to £4m in a lucrative empire trading on the work of airport staff has been jailed for six years.Multi-millionaire Mazher Raja, 50, of Hanworth, defrauded the Inland Revenue from at least 1993 to 2001, London's Southwark Crown Court heard.In a "complex" and sophisticated fraud, Pakistan-born Raja told "endless lies" to inspectors and "despicably" targeted his own community, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin, QC, said.To escape detection he used various methods to distance himself from many of his phoenix-like firms that appeared, disappeared, and then rose again with a new name.The jury heard that Raja, who mainly supplied labour to clean planes and prepare onboard meals at Gatwick and Heathrow, not only conned workers into thinking their deductions were being made properly but created fictitious employees to pocket even more.He then tried to conceal as much of his ill-gotten gains as possible by channelling large chunks into accounts controlled by his wife, children and other relatives.When revenue investigators moved in they found millions in tax and national insurance contributions missing.The judge told Raja: "Umpteen sums of money in terms of PAYE contributions in respect of goodness knows how many workers were not paid as they should have been."In respect to some of the off-the-record companies, no tax was paid at all. You made not just a handsome profit yourself and your family but a veritable fortune."Raja, of Hanworth, Middlesex, was sentenced to six years' jail to run concurrently on each of nine counts of cheating Inland Revenue between February 1998 and April 2001.He got an 18-month and a three-year sentence, also to run concurrently, for being found guilty on two charges of false accounting.The 11-week trial heard Raja's companies had acted as labour agencies providing a large number of workers to other businesses.Prosecutors put the amount of money stolen at in excess of £4m. Raja's accountant puts it to at least £2m. The judge said the amount owed to the Inland Revenue is "in the very least the sum of £2.75m" and a confiscation hearing will take place at a later date.Raja "despicably" targeted his own community, Geoffrey Rivelin, QC, said.