A SCOTTISH tax fraud fugitive who is one of the UK's most wanted men is being hunted in Africa.
Gareth Johnson originally from Forfar, Angus, played a leading role in an 18-strong crime gang involved in a complex VAT fraud.
He and his father Geoffrey made millions from a complex VAT fraud scheme, but escaped before they could be put on trial.
Geoffrey Johnson managed to evade the authorities until July, when the 74-year-old was caught trying to travel to Dubai with a fake British passport.
He has since been deported back to the UK and jailed for more than 24 years.
But it is believed that Gareth is living in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, where he fled with £109 million from the fraud scheme.
The 59-year-old was the principal controller of Tectonics Holdings and Coast Logistics, companies used to launder money through UK and offshore accounts.
He previously rented an apartment in Muthaiga, an upmarket suburb .
HMRC has posted ads in several local newspapers appealing for information about Johnson, who now faces a 26-year sentence for his crimes.
Gareth and Geoffrey Johnson were an integral part of an 18-man gang based in Scotland, England and Spain, which set up a businesses claiming to import and sell mobile phones.
An investigation by the HMRC discovered they were actually using a series of complex transactions to launder stolen money through international bank accounts.
The Johnsons each had 14 years added to their sentences when they failed to pay back the millions they owed.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here