Twenty seven people have been sentenced in Northern Ireland's biggest ever tax fraud case.
The gang was jailed after investigators bugged an accountants' office, which was used as its base, and secretly recorded them.
The decade-long investigation ended yesterday with prison sentences handed down to gang leaders Francis Devlin, 58, of Bristow Park in Belfast and Paul McStravick, 56, of Myrtlefield Park in the city.
Both were jailed for four years for their part in the £5 million tax fraud linked to the construction industry.
HM Revenue and Customs mounted its biggest ever operation in Northern Ireland to bring the large gang to justice.
The case was based on 260 hours of secretly recorded footage of the gang members plotting the fraud from the offices of Belfast accountancy firm Allen Tully and Co, where Devlin was a partner.
In one clip, they were recorded describing the office as an "Aladdin's Cave" and saying they would end up on the "six o'clock news" and "go down in history" if they were ever caught.
The other 25 accomplices, most of whom knowingly allowed their personal details to be used as part of the fraud, got suspended prison sentences.
The gang created a false audit trail that enabled clients to operate in the construction industry without paying tax or VAT.
They created 16 bogus companies and used 56 different bank accounts in an attempt to cover their tracks.
"The fact is that no tax criminal is beyond our reach and that includes those corrupt professionals who aid and abet them, as these sentences clearly show," said Richard Las, Director of the Fraud Investigation Service.
More than 400 HMRC officers searched 34 business and residential properties in March 2012.
The gang was kept under surveillance for six weeks between February and March 2012.
