A crooked stamps dealer who was convicted of using the identities of dead babies to create illegal passports has been jailed for VAT fraud.

Philip Ryle, 58, of Dovetail Drive, Weston-super-Mare, Bristol, stole more than £300,000 through an intricate web of cash transfers and VAT claims through a string of companies he set up to create a series of fake trades in rare stamps, an investigation by HMRC revealed.

Mr Ryle sold the stamps from one of his companies to another for up to 800 percent of their true value. The second company would reclaim the VAT while the first company would not pay the VAT owed on the sale leadi...