Australian entrepreneur David Collard purchased parts of defunct Britishvolt out of administration earlier this year, with the promise of reviving its plans to build a large-scale battery factory in Blyth, Northumberland.
Collard’s company, Recharge Industries, said the Britishvolt scheme to build the battery gigafactory will create up to 3,000 jobs. However, Collard is yet to purchase the land for the plant, despite the announcement in February.
The tax fraud investigation relates to SaniteX, a business owned by Collard that provides services to some of his other companies, including Scale Facilitation, the entity that owns Britishvolt.
Tax investigators from the Australian Federal Police arrived at offices shared by SaniteX and Scale Foundation last Friday (23 June) to seize IT and communications equipment, as part of a probe into the business that has been going on for close to two months, according to people with knowledge of the investigation.
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