A significant VAT fraud case has emerged in East Jutland, Denmark, where a local baker has been convicted for participating in an extensive scheme involving the purchase of luxury watches. The Horsens District Court has sentenced the 55-year-old man to five months of conditional imprisonment and 70 hours of community service after he confessed to being an accomplice in particularly serious VAT fraud and document forgery.
From 2019 to 2021, the baker purchased 13 exclusive Rolex watches, along with a ring and a pair of earrings, from the watch retailer Knud Pedersen Ure in Aarhus. The total value of these purchases amounted to nearly 2.3 million Danish kroner (approximately 338,000 USD), including VAT. However, the Danish Tax Agency (Skattestyrelsen) was defrauded out of 480,000 kroner (about 72,000 USD) in VAT, as the baker provided a fictitious name and a foreign address during the purchases and had the invoices marked with false customs stamps that indicated the goods were exported outside the EU, which was not true.
The convicted baker chose to admit to the charges, which allowed the case to be settled as a confession case. However, it has not been possible to obtain a comment from his lawyer regarding whether the verdict will be appealed.
The National Special Crime Unit (NSK) has stated that the investigation is still ongoing and has refrained from commenting on whether additional charges will be filed in the case. According to reports from the Danish business newspaper Børsen, several suspects are involved, including the director and co-owner of Knud Pedersen Ure, Peter Smalbro Christensen, a salesman from the store, a used car dealer, and another unidentified suspect.
Before the case was addressed in court, the director of Knud Pedersen Ure asserted that he believed all sales were conducted in accordance with applicable regulations. However, the company has cooperated with the police and the Danish Tax Agency and has allocated 3.5 million kroner (around 520,000 USD) for costs related to the case in their 2021/22 financial statements.
It is still uncertain whether the case will lead to further prosecutions, but the current information suggests that authorities are investigating multiple facets of the alleged fraud.