Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
- author, Callum May
- role, BBC News
Lawyers for controversial influencer Andrew Tate told a London court that payments to his online business had been processed in a “completely legitimate” way.
Police are seeking £2.8 million in unpaid tax on income from Mr Tait, his brother Tristan and a third party known as J.
The court heard the brothers were “habitual” and “brazen” tax evaders and made £21 million from online businesses including OnlyFans, a website known for its pornographic content.
They were accused of creating a “spaghetti trail” of bank accounts.
Martin Evans, an attorney for the Taits family, said Tuesday that the way the funds were transferred was “completely legitimate.”
“Money was deposited into the Taits’ account. That’s the beginning, the middle and the end. There is no parting,” he told the court.
He said the couple should be allowed to keep the money because they did not “do anything wrong” to get it.
Andrew Tate, 37, and Tristan, 35, did not appear in court for the two-day hearing.
The pair were arrested in December last year on suspicion of rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal organisation, but they deny the charges and are due to stand trial in Romania.
Their bail conditions currently do not allow them to leave the European Union.
Sarah Clarke KC, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said the police force does not pay tax on its income in any country.
She said the funds had been “diverted” into multiple bank accounts in the UK.
Mr Evans told the court: “A wash is not a banking term. The banking term is a money transfer. What happened was entirely orthodox – a number of transfers of money from a payments platform to Tates.”
On Monday, Clarke cited a video posted online by Andrew Tait in which he said: “When I lived in the UK, I refused to pay tax.”
The court heard he said his approach was to “ignore, ignore, ignore, because eventually they’ll go away”.
The court also heard that the brothers had a “large number of bank accounts” in the UK, seven of which had been frozen.
The case is a civil action and is subject to a lower standard of proof than a criminal case.
Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring will decide on the balance of probabilities whether police are entitled to freeze the Taits and Js’ bank accounts and assets worth £2.8 million.
He said he would reserve judgment until a future date.
