UK producer guilty of £1.5m fraud

The producer and director of horror-musical Eldorado, starring former Dr Who Sylvester McCoy, Darryl Hannah, David Carradine and the voice of Peter O’Toole, has been found guilty of a £1.5m VAT fraud.

As reported by This is Cornwall, Southwark Crown Court heard on Tuesday how Richard Driscoll, who ran a studio in Redruth, Cornwall, falsified invoices for the costs of making Eldorado and two other films (Watchmen Hellgate and Back2Hell) in order to reclaim VAT and set up a number of associated companies that were used to commit the offences.

The claims for repayment of £1.5 million VAT was based on production costs of more than £9m ($14m) but investigators found that the costs were actually less than £1m ($1.6m).

Bogus invoices were sent to support the false repayment claims. Other invoices were genuine but had their values inflated.

LA-based sales outfit Fantastic Films International boarded Eldorado, about a Blues Brothers tribute band trying to escape a town of cannibals, but the film never received a theatrical release.

The films also stars Brigitte Nielsen, Kerry Washington, Jeff Fahey, Steve Guttenberg, Bill Mosley, Michael Madsen and Rik Mayall, who also starred in Driscoll’s 2011 horror Evil Calls.

Driscoll, who claimed the film would be the first British 3D feature, will be sentenced next month.