Tipperary woman fought the good fight to clear her name in England

A Clonmel woman living in England has written a book about her harrowing experience that followed the hijacking of her home address by criminals, and her ongoing battle with His Majesty’s Revenue Commissioners (HMRC) to clear her name.

‘Gino’s Contraband’ tells the story of an investigation in 2019 when UK Border Police at Heathrow Airport seized 270,000 contraband cigarettes destined for a person called Gino at Miki National Co Ltd, around the same time that Gabrielle O’Donovan received related correspondence that looked like a scam.

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Gabrielle eventually learned that (HMRC) had decided that she was the intended recipient of the contraband. As she was pursued, she says that HMRC treated her as guilty until she could prove her innocence.

That led her to ask why her human rights were not being respected.

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For almost four years, Gabrielle had to convince HMRC that she was not the perpetrator of this massive VAT fraud.
During her ordeal Gabrielle, an author and change management expert who lives in St Albans, Hertfordshire, was sent a VAT demand for £88,034.

She was also horrified to discover her name on an HMRC online list of “deliberate tax defaulters”, known as the “name and shame” list, which was subsequently removed, with a letter of apology sent to her.

However, four months later she received a bankruptcy warning letter demanding £132,711, payable within ten days.

It was only in May 2023 that HMRC acknowledged it had been pursuing the wrong person and removed her details from the case permanently.

Although HMRC has since apologised to Gabrielle for wrongly issuing her with a bankruptcy letter – and admitted her home address had been “hijacked” – she says it has not said sorry for wrongly targeting her in the first place and putting her name and address on its name and shame list.