U.S. film festival cancels award to UK film after tax scam

A U.S. film festival has withdrawn an award given to a British movie about a Gulf War veteran seeking justice after a London court jailed five people for making the movie as part of 2.8 million pound ($4.3 million) tax scam.

Tax inspectors were told that A-listers from Hollywood would be starring in a 19.6 million pound production that would be shot in Britain.

But the gang never intended to make the film "Landscape Of Lives," Southwark Crown Court in London heard on Monday.

"The real intent was to defraud the public purse of nearly 1.5 million pounds in VAT along with nearly 1.3 million in film tax credit claims," the HMRC revenue department said.

When tax inspectors started becoming suspicious, the gang tried to cover their tracks by actually making a low-budget film about a Gulf War veteran seeking justice for a murdered comrade.

Just as in this year's Oscar Best Picture winner "Argo" - in which the CIA dreams up a fake sci-fi movie, complete with screenplay, posters and advertisements as cover for a hostage-rescue mission - the low-budget production was announced in film industry magazines.

The movie, released on DVD in 2011, included in its cast an actor from the soap opera "EastEnders", Marc Bannerman, and television presenter Andrea McLean, both of whom had no knowledge of the fraud.

Al-Issa, described as the orchestrator of the fraud, was jailed for 6-1/2 years.

Actor Madden, said to have submitted a "pack of lies" to inspectors about the project, was sentenced to four years and eight months.