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Watchseller · 16 October 2017, 04:49 AM

Hello guys,

I came across this thread accidently on Google and normally I’m not a forum type of person (sorry!) however I felt the urge to add a few lines regarding Darren Reay who I have known personally and in business for around 15+ years and have had plentiful contact with during his problems with HMRC. You shouldn’t always believe everything that you read online. Yes Darren did sell imported watches from the USA for 4 years out of the 15 years he was in business, and yes he didn’t pay anywhere near the correct amount of import VAT and duty, however he certainly didn’t pocket anything like £1.2M, and none of his customers lost a penny, on the contrary his customers saved anything from 15% to 40% on their luxury watch, while Darren earned an average of 5% from each sale, on a typical £10k watch he would get £500 gross and then pay VAT on his profit (I've seen the figures myself!). Over a period of 4 years he earned approx. £300k in total from the USA imported watches and ended up having to sign over 800 used watches to HMRC in order to satisfy them and quash his Import VAT bill, so it is safe to say that HMRC have now been settled in full. He was arrested by HMRC and interviewed/prosecuted by HMRC (Not the police as some people have said). It seems that the only person who has lost out here is Darren himself, after 15 years in business he has been wiped out financially, and also been sentenced to 3 years in prison. Don’t get me wrong I do not condone tax evasion, everyone needs to pay what they owe. The people close to Darren know the real truth, the people who don’t know Darren believe every word they read in the newspapers and online stories, which don’t show all of the facts. Sorry to waffle on a little but Darren isn’t here to defend himself and explain (for obvious reasons) so I took it upon myself to pass this information on.

And before anyone asks, no I don’t know where the 800 watches are being sold :-) probably some auction house somewhere making 10% of what they are actually worth!

16 October 2017, 04:49 AM	#54
Watchseller "TRF" Member Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: UK Posts: 1	Darren Reay Hello guys, I came across this thread accidently on Google and normally I’m not a forum type of person (sorry!) however I felt the urge to add a few lines regarding Darren Reay who I have known personally and in business for around 15+ years and have had plentiful contact with during his problems with HMRC. You shouldn’t always believe everything that you read online. Yes Darren did sell imported watches from the USA for 4 years out of the 15 years he was in business, and yes he didn’t pay anywhere near the correct amount of import VAT and duty, however he certainly didn’t pocket anything like £1.2M, and none of his customers lost a penny, on the contrary his customers saved anything from 15% to 40% on their luxury watch, while Darren earned an average of 5% from each sale, on a typical £10k watch he would get £500 gross and then pay VAT on his profit (I've seen the figures myself!). Over a period of 4 years he earned approx. £300k in total from the USA imported watches and ended up having to sign over 800 used watches to HMRC in order to satisfy them and quash his Import VAT bill, so it is safe to say that HMRC have now been settled in full. He was arrested by HMRC and interviewed/prosecuted by HMRC (Not the police as some people have said). It seems that the only person who has lost out here is Darren himself, after 15 years in business he has been wiped out financially, and also been sentenced to 3 years in prison. Don’t get me wrong I do not condone tax evasion, everyone needs to pay what they owe. The people close to Darren know the real truth, the people who don’t know Darren believe every word they read in the newspapers and online stories, which don’t show all of the facts. Sorry to waffle on a little but Darren isn’t here to defend himself and explain (for obvious reasons) so I took it upon myself to pass this information on. And before anyone asks, no I don’t know where the 800 watches are being sold :-) probably some auction house somewhere making 10% of what they are actually worth!