One of the UK's most prolific tax fraudsters has lost his appeal against a judge's order to repay more than £90m he gained through his crimes.

Arif Patel, from Preston, ran an international organised crime group, which stole tens of millions of pounds of public money through a complex tax fraud.

He fled the UK in 2011 and has never returned, but was eventually convicted in his absence of offences including conspiracies to cheat His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the importation and sale of counterfeit goods and money- laundering.

In a written judgment on Tuesday, the Court of Appeal rejected his claim that the size of his property empire, which had been seized by the court-appointed receiver in 2010, had not kept pace with inflation and that the judge's order had been disproportionate.

In 2023, Patel was given a 20-year jail sentence but hasn't served a day of his sentence.

Following his convictions a judge issued a confiscation order, which said he must repay £90.5m.

But despite being on the run in Dubai, Patel was able to bring a case to the Court of Appeal in London, to argue the sum was excessive.

Following Patel's conviction the judge ruled between 2003 and 2008, he'd made £52.7m through his crimes, which included £33.4m of taxpayers' money he stole through VAT fraud, and more than £19m made from the large-scale importation and sale of fake designer goods.

But when the confiscation order was made in 2025, that figure had been increased to £90.5m to account for inflation.

The judgment said Patel would not have faced a significantly larger total sum had he "accepted at the outset his criminality, disclosed his criminal benefits and agreed to forfeit them".

Patel's legal team also argued Patel did not have assets to cover this amount, an argument which was also rejected.

The judgment said Patel "appears to have been able to live in very comfortable circumstances in the UAE for 15 years without identified means of support".

It added the judge who made the original confiscation order was entitled to conclude that by the time Patel absconded in 2011, he would have had "many millions of truly hidden assets".

The judgment also revealed Patel had failed to cooperate with an official receiver whose job it was to identify his assets in Dubai.

"I gather that the applicant procured the receiver's arrest when he went to the UAE," the judgment said.

Work will now begin to sell off Patel's property empire. The funds raised will be returned to the public purse.

Adrian Foster of the Crown Prosecution Service's Proceeds of Crime Division said: "The CPS has worked closely with HMRC and Lancashire Police to ensure that Arif Patel could not keep the benefit from his fake counterfeit designer clothes scam and fraudulent VAT claims.

"This judgment reinforces that we will work tirelessly to prosecute international illicit finance and corruption, along with any appeals that flow from it."

In the early part of the millennium, Patel's company, Faisaltex, headquartered in Preston, was known for manufacturing textiles such as socks and nighties, which it supplied to retailers.

But behind the facade, Patel was at the helm of one of the country's biggest ever VAT frauds, known as a carousel fraud.

A carousel fraud involves chains of fake business transactions created as a way of stealing VAT repayments from HMRC.

Goods are moved between different companies, in and out of the country, to generate false tax refunds.

The same shipments of goods are often moved around repeatedly, hence the name carousel fraud.

Patel's criminal empire was uncovered in a series of raids in 2008, which followed a years long investigation by HMRC and Lancashire Police.

Last month File on 4 Investigates revealed Patel's glamorous life in Dubai, and his claims that he had made sizeable donations to charitable organisations.

The BBC tried to contact Patel for comment through his Manchester-based solicitor, but received no response.