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Lee Hickinbottom, 49, worked with his former partner, Tabatha Knott, 34, to fraudulently submit VAT repayment claims to HMRC over the course of three years. The pair spent stolen cash on luxury cars and dream holidays to Disneyland, Paris and New York. They paid £120,000 in cash to buy their home in Dudley, West Midlands, and a further £127,000 on home improvements.

And Hickinbottom splashed out more than £1,500 on Lego including kits for The Avengers, Batman and Tower Bridge in London.

Home improvements included £22,741 on a high end kitchen, Birmingham Crown Court heard. They featured a £3,000 Italian granite work surface, and more than £13,000 on a deluxe hot tub that had to be installed with a crane.

Hickinbottom’s banking records proved that he spent more than £250,000 on a fleet of flash cars, including £83,157 on a Jaguar F pace, £57,820 on two Jaguar XFs and £62,089 on a Land Rover Defender.

Other lifestyle purchases included £18,847 spent on iTunes, £15,925 on Apple products, more than £1,000 on trips to Alton Towers and £4,220 spent supporting Everton Football Club, including £970 on a pair of season tickets for him and Knott.

Hickinbottom submitted most of the claims through his Serenity Community Transport business and provided false invoices. HMRC officers uncovered the fraud when the claims were checked.

Hickinbottom has now pleaded guilty to dishonestly claiming £28,000 of Job Seekers Allowance and Employment Support Allowance between July 2013 and October 2016.

He also admitted benefit fraud totalling £28,000.

He’ll be sentenced in May, reports Liverpool Echo.

Anamarie Coomansingh of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: “Taxpayers’ money, which should have been spent on vital public services such as the NHS, education and social care was instead used to fund the unearned and extravagant lifestyle these defendants enjoyed.

“The CPS will be inviting the court to put in place measures to prevent Lee Hickinbottom, a career criminal, from committing similar offences in the future. We will also be pursuing confiscation proceedings against all three defendants, to strip them of any money from their criminal activity.”

Confiscation proceedings are underway to recover the stolen money.

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