Britain owes the European Union budget €2bn after turning a blind eye to a major scam by Chinese importers, the EU's fraud office said.
"We recommended that the European Commission recovers the money from the United Kingdom," the EU's anti-fraud office OLAF said in an email to AFP.
OLAF accuses Britain of ignoring rampant use of fake invoices and customs claims by Chinese importers which cost €1.99bn in lost customs duties to the EU.
The claim comes at a sensitive time in EU-Britain relations, just before London is to embark on Brexit negotiations in which the UK's exit bill, estimated at €60bn, has already sparked sharp exchanges.
An investigation by OLAF showed that between 2013 and 2016, fraudsters evaded customs duties by using false invoices and incorrect customs value declarations on imports into the UK.
OLAF said that "despite repeated efforts and in contrast to the actions taken by several other member states to fight against these fraudsters," the scam in Britain continued to grow.
The office said that the scheme also cost other EU countries, such as France, Germany, Spain and Italy, €3.2bn in lost national value-added-tax revenue.
