Updated: IT was a £12 million VAT scam that funded an extravagant lifestyle of expensive cars, lavish properties, designer accessories and champagne lunches.

But now Jayne Louise Mitchell, a former secretary and well-known pigeon fancier from Selby, has been jailed for ten years for her part in the fraud.

Mitchell, along with six others, imported more than 7,000 new vehicles, which they sold on through a complex web of fake companies, with a turnover of £80 million in two years.

Revenue officials said the cars were imported VAT free, passed through a chain of fake companies, and eventually sold on to unsuspecting car supermarkets and dealerships across the UK. Many of the fake companies then disappeared without paying the VAT due on the sales.

Peter Hollier, regional director of criminal investigation for HM Revenue & Customs, said: “This was a professionally-organised, sustained attack on the UK tax system. This crime group had gone to great lengths to facilitate this fraud, which saw them ‘steal’ more than £12 million from the UK’s economy.

“This fraud allowed Jayne Mitchell to live a luxurious lifestyle. She bought Ferraris, lavish properties, designer accessories and champagne lunches by stealing £12 million of taxpayers’ money, money which could pay the annual salaries of around 450 NHS nurses.”

Mr Hollier said one contrived company received more than £65 million in bank credits, while another raised invoices for more than £4 million in only four months.

Mitchell, 40, was extradited to the UK from Belgium, where she lived with her husband in a luxurious property that cost her between £1 million and £2 million.

The house, which Mitchell redecorated at a cost of £600,000, has now been repossessed by the mortgagor and is expected to be sold at auction.

Mitchell, who has been made bankrupt, previously lived at Woodland House, in Long Lane, Wistow. That property was sold for more than £500,000 when she moved to Belgium in 2003. Yesterday, she was found guilty of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue, following a ten-week trial at Leeds Crown Court.

Sentencing Mitchell, His Honour Judge Durham Hall told her: “You had no defence and came forward with fanciful explanations in the face of damning evidence.

“This fraud was both brazen and meticulous, with ruthless attention to detail. You manipulated all and any for the pursuit of your own ends.

“This was a massive, deliberate and determined attacked on the UK VAT system and a gross example of cheating the public revenue.”

Mitchell, now of Wilsden Road, Allerton, near Bradford, was caught after HMRC began investigations into the accounts of a number of the fake companies following a routine VAT visit.

Six others involved in the fraud have all admitted the same charge, conspiracy to cheat the public revenue, and will be sentenced on December 3.