A pimp conned UK taxpayers out of nearly £10,000 while running brothels in Dundee.
Brazen crook Eduard Stanciu was claiming dodgy tax rebates for his business while he was living off the earnings of the prostitutes he managed in the city.
Stanciu spent three years getting HMRC to pay him tax refunds by submitting false claims.
At Dundee Sheriff Court, Stanciu, 32, admitted conning the taxman out of £9,840.56 in relation to claims over a three-year period.
He also admitted “living wholly or in part on the earnings of prostitution” relating to three flats in the city’s Blackness Road and Arklay Street.
He admitted “knowingly” living off immoral earnings between September 28 2016 and August 23 2019.
A further three properties in Peddie Street and Lochee Road, Dundee and Pottery Street, Kirkcaldy were removed from the original charge when Stanciu pled guilty.
Stanciu, of Dens Road, Dundee, admitted that between January 5 and July 2 2019, he pretended to HMRC employees that he had paid £9,794.60 tax on his income.
He claimed he had paid that tax during the financial years of 2015/16, 2016/17, and 2017/18, and as a result was entitled to a tax rebate.
He admitted, in reality, he had paid no tax and obtained £9,840.56 by fraud.
People trafficking pleas accepted
Co-accused Cristina Gaica, also of Dens Road, admitted failing to appear in court on November 24 2020, having been granted bail on August 26 2019.
Both she, Stanciu, and a third accused, Octavian-Marian Poraditu, 33, from Kirkcaldy, were alleged to have been involved in transferring unknown sums of money out of Scotland and back to Romania.
It was alleged they were involved in human trafficking and made a bid to con the taxman out of a further £23,000 by the same fraudulent means.
Those charges were dropped by the Crown as part of a plea deal.
At one stage in proceedings, the case was delayed as the accused were believed to have fled back to Romania.
Stanciu and Gaica had been due to appear in the dock at Dundee during 2020, but neither turned up and warrants had to be issued for their arrest.
They returned to the city and admitted charges, while Poraditu’s not guilty pleas were accepted and he was formally cleared.
The case was deferred for a Crown narrative and for further details of the background to the offences to be heard later this week by Sheriff Paul Brown.
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