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Market News for IT, Computer Components, CPU, HDD, RAM, Networks

The ICB.cc team uses this page to provide current Industry News and updates and allows Customers to post announcements.

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Industry News

The Latest VAT Tribunal Cases

Posted: 23 February


The Latest VAT Tribunal Cases

Hi all, this is for information.


To assist you find the latest decisions we have found the links.


Click the links below to see the decisions of the relevant cases:







POWA (JERSEY) LIMITED


Full Decision Link - Click Here





TARLO WORLDWIDE LIMITED


Full Decision Link - Click Here



H T PURSER LIMITED
Full Decision Link - Click Here



DI & GI ELECTRONICS...

RETRIEVE YOUR FUNDS FROM FCIB

Posted: 20 February


RETRIEVE YOUR FUNDS FROM FCIB

Following the closure of First Curacao International Bank (FCIB) in October 2006, many traders had their funds trapped there and it has been extremely difficult to retrieve the funds.

If you have significant funds still in FCIB, please call Anthony on +44 (0) 7721 326 156 or email Anthony@thirddimension.co.uk to discuss options for retrieving your funds before it is too late.

Significant Judgement from Upper Tier VAT Tribunal

Posted: 17 February


Significant Judgement from Upper Tier VAT Tribunal

The upper tier tribunal has released a significant judgement which will impact appeals filed before 2009 Rules.


Relevant extract from Judgement - Click Here for more information


Full judgement - Click here for full original judgement


If you would like more details contact IPT

European Update on VAT Cases - Bonik EOOD

Posted: 09 February


European Update on VAT Cases - Bonik EOOD


CTM has been informed that the first of the ECJ references will be heard on 16 March 2012, less than 6 weeks away. These relate to the above two companies and may have a direct impact on UK MTIC appeals.

We believe that the Bulgarian case of Bonik EOOD is likely to be listed soon after. This clearly deals with the “connected with” argument.

If you would like to discuss the importance...

FREE CeBIT Tickets

Posted: 08 February








Visit the IPT / IGT Area - HALL 14 - H60


If you need FREE tickets email all details to - ed@ipt.cc


See you all in Hannover!

EARLY SUCCESS FOR TRADER IN 2012 GIVES SOME HOPE TO OTHERS

Posted: 06 February


EARLY SUCCESS FOR TRADER IN 2012 GIVES SOME HOPE TO OTHERS

Tribunal gets it just right

January 2012 saw a trader successfully win a means of knowledge appeal in Tribunal, with the Judge appearing to recognise that it should be difficult for HMRC to win such cases. This follows on from CTM’s back to back successes for 3 traders in 2011; 3 as a result of the conclusion of length trials and a fourth where HMRC repaid 50% of a repayment...

Warning - Attempted Cloning - Facet Europe BV

Posted: 02 February


Warning - Attempted Cloning - Facet Europe BV

Dear All,

It has come to our attention that currently there are people trying to act on behalf of our company, sending around our company documents and asking for credit lines.

We ask you to thoroughly check the mail address and name this mail is coming from, and urge you to call us directly on our office number, which is +31 79 330 1630.

Your phone call will be answered by our lovely...

Warning - Cloned Companies

Posted: 18 January


Warning - Cloned Companies

We have seen proof of another cloning attempt.

We advise you to make sure you know who you are dealing with as these people will use REAL companies but change documents and give different contact details.


Take references - and check those references.

Please be very careful. If you have not heard of the company before be even more suspicious.

You must do logical due diligence to check the person who claims...

Gang of 15 jailed for £250m VAT fraud

Posted: 21 December


£250 million fraudsters jailed

HM Revenue & Customs (National)

The 15th member of a gang involved in a £250 million VAT fraud using the supposed import and export of mobile phones, has been jailed today for nine years. Multi-millionaire Nasir Khan’s assets of £15million have also been restrained for his part in one of the UK’s largest ever ‘missing trader’ frauds.

Fourteen other career criminals...

Eight arrested in VAT fraud investigation

Posted: 20 December


Eight arrested in VAT fraud investigation

Eight people have been arrested during early morning raids across Lancashire, Leicestershire, Cornwall and Kent by officers from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) investigating a suspected European-wide ‘missing trader’ VAT fraud involving mobile phone and electronic communications trading.

HMRC investigators carried out searches of 20 business and residential addresses in Preston, Blackburn,...

Squeezing trade - By CRN

Posted: 07 December


Squeezing trade


07 Dec 2011, sara yirrell , CRN

Trade has been the backbone of the UK economy for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

In fact, a recent joint report by the CBI and Ernst&Young claimed the government needs to increase net exports to 2.5 per cent by 2016 to stimulate the economy, which could eventually see £20bn added to UK plc’s bottom line.

So why is it that mobile phone and computer component (CPU)...

CONTACT YOUR MP TO REQUEST HELP AGAINST HMRC ABUSE OF PROCESS

Posted: 01 December


CONTACT YOUR MP TO REQUEST HELP AGAINST HMRC ABUSE OF PROCESS

You will all be aware of the gross injustices that are being perpetuated by HMRC and the Tribunal system against the trading sector.
During the past few years, I have been trying to highlight to my MP the abuses of process by HMRC in the VAT Tribunals. David Heath MP used an amendment to the HMRC Charter in Parliament in 2009 to question the Treasury Minister. David is now a minister...

TWO APPEALS BEHIND HUNGARIAN AND BULGARIAN ECJ CASES

Posted: 30 November


CTM SUCCESSFULLY STAND TWO APPEALS BEHIND HUNGARIAN AND BULGARIAN ECJ CASES

ASSISTING TRADERS IN CRIMINAL AND CIVIL CASES

Upper Tribunal agrees that ECJ cases may have effect on UK appeals Further to our earlier Newsletter regarding Applications to the Upper Tribunal to stand over appeals behind European cases, we are extremely pleased to report that the decision was released today and Judge Bishopp agreed with the traders’ request....

Ex-policeman collared in UK’s largest ever VAT fraud

Posted: 14 November


Ex-policeman collared in UK’s largest ever VAT fraud

A former policeman from South Yorkshire has been jailed for 10 years and three months today for his part in an attempted £330 million VAT fraud - the largest of its kind in the UK. He and five others were caught by investigators from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) after they claimed their new business, Ideas 2 Go Ltd, had sold more than six million mobile phones and had a turnover...

BlackBerry Messenger vs Apple iMessage (ios 5)

Posted: 31 October


BlackBerry Messenger vs Apple iMessage (ios 5)

By Paul Briden - Published on Oct 14, 2011

We take a look at Apple's new iMessage service from iOS 5 and see how it compares to RIM's well-entrenched BlackBerry Messenger

RIM's BlackBerry Messenger pioneered the whole 'integrated messaging' service, which Apple – in true Apple-style – has now imitated with iMessage on iOS 5.

The premise is fairly simple, you can send messages...

WARNING about Mr Sarj Lakhani – Recent Insurance Policy Problems

Posted: 21 October


WARNING about Mr Sarj Lakhani – Recent Insurance Policy Problems


Dear All


Please be aware that Mr Sarj Lakhani who has previously been representing R.A. Insurance Brokers Limited as an employee is now no longer employed by R.A. Insurance Brokers Limited. Please also note that he is currently under investigation.


We have been informed that Mr Lakhani has recently arranged some insurance policies & covers generally in the...

Express Computers/Hillcraft Trading Win “Means of Knowledge” Appeal

Posted: 26 August


Express Computers/Hillcraft Trading Win “Means of Knowledge” Appeal
September 2011 Newsletter - Liban Ahmed

Express Computers/Hillcraft Trading Win “Means of Knowledge” Appeal CTM has successfully recovered VAT in an appeal that was a hard fought battle from start to finish. The hurdles to overcome included all the usual allegations, such as circularity of funds, tax losses in each supply chain, no insurance, contrived...

Headlines - The Register

RIP: Peak Oil - we won't be running out any time soon

23 February - 12:29

Human ingenuity wins the day

Analysis  The idea that seized the imaginations of the bien pensant chattering classes in the Noughties – "Peak Oil" – is no longer relevant. So says the commodities team at Citigroup, and policy-makers would be wise to examine the trends they've identified.…

Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 13.3in Ultrabook

23 February - 12:26

Five and a half hours on the road

Review  The last time I tested a Toshiba laptop, it had a glowing orange screen and the keyboard rattled like a box of Lego. Come to think of it, newspapers at the time were scaring readers about ‘house parties’, so it was quite a while ago. So perhaps you can imagine how utterly charming the pretentiously named Portégé Z830-10N appeared to me when it arrived.…

Woman spanked for dissing ex in Facebook snapshot

23 February - 12:14

Spanish court objects to obscene t-shirt slogan

A Spanish divorcée's purse is somewhat lighter after she posted photos on Facebook of herself wearing a t-shirt declaring "My ex-husband's an arsehole" - and was ordered to pay €1,000 damages for her trouble.…

Microsoft apes Google social search master plan

23 February - 12:03

Building a separate internet with Facebook... bitch

Every now and again Microsoft comes along to remind us of two things: it's still a big name in online search and remains very cosy with the world's biggest social network, Facebook.…

Foxconn allegedly hid underage workers from inspectors

23 February - 11:50

Non-profit claims iPad-maker cheated in factory audit

Analysis  Apple faces increased pressure today after its manufacturing partner Foxconn was accused of using forced student labour and hiding underage workers during high-profile independent inspections last week. Foxconn also makes components for other manufacturers, but Apple is its most prominent customer.…

Third of Blighty stuck on snail-speed broadband

23 February - 11:28

UK.gov's uphill battle to get us superfast by 2015 revealed

The UK government will have a tough time fulfilling its superfast broadband promises for the country with a third of British postcodes still stuck at sloth-like speeds.…

Juniper buys Mykonos to beat off web app attacks

23 February - 11:13

The art of deception

Juniper has bought web application security firm Mykonos Software in a deal valued at around $80m (£51m) in cash.…

UK.gov vows to purify TV with £180m from mobile networks

23 February - 11:02

£10,000 per home to protect Freeview from 4G signals

Bored of waiting for Ofcom's consultation on the possible interference between 4G telephony and Freeview TV, the Ministry of Fun has said it will spend £180m of operators' money mitigating the problem.…

LG touts Tegra 3 talker

23 February - 10:59

Optimus 4X HD exposed

LG has revealed what it has in store for next week's Mobile World Congress (MWC): specifically its Nvidia Tegra 3-based smartphone, the Optimus 4X HD.…

China cuffs 905 suspects in online black market purge

23 February - 10:41

8,000 emporiums eradicated

The Chinese authorities have gone on yet another web crackdown, shutting close to 8,000 websites, although this time the target appears to have been genuine criminal ventures rather than sites spouting politically incorrect sentiments or peddling smut.…

Freetard MP allegedly cuffed after scrap in Commons bar

23 February - 10:24

Plods called after pints spilled, punches thrown

Freetard MP Eric Joyce (sample quote: "It's highly debatable that downloading is theft") has allegedly been arrested following a fight in the Strangers Bar at the House of Commons.…

Nominet to launch .wales and .cymru

23 February - 10:17

Welsh gov backs bilingual domains, rugby legend to head up advisory group

Wales is to get two new top-level internet domains – one for Welsh speakers and one for the rest of us – under a deal announced yesterday between the Welsh government and .uk registry Nominet.…

Grid Lens

23 February - 10:00

Frame and fortune

iOS App of the Week  Grid Lens is a fun little photography app that allows you to combine multiple images within a single shot.…

Blighty's PC biz braces for another rocky ride

23 February - 09:31

But consumer sales on the mend

IDC has more than halved UK PC shipment forecasts for 2012 on the back of falling demand across much of the commercial space, particularly in public sector.…

Cabinet Office 'fesses up to Cloud Store gremlins

23 February - 09:01

Boss vows to 'fix that dratted feedback form'

IT and comms suppliers are unable to tweak their entries in the government's Cloud Store because the only mechanism to do this is not working properly.…

Hitachi GST waggles nippy 2.5-incher at Ultrabooks

23 February - 08:27

Size does matter with Travelstar's single-platter hardness

Remember Hitachi GST's 500GB single-platter Travelstar? Well, now it spins faster and jets out data quicker, possibly having been accelerated for the Ultrabook market.…

Grooveshark blocked in Denmark by copyright warriors

23 February - 08:02

DNS-level barrier appeal expected

A Danish copyright group has won a court order to block music streaming site Grooveshark from the nation's pastry-munching pirates.…

Daniel Craig like Connery, Skyfall helmsman suggests

23 February - 07:04

Sam Mendes risks wrath of 'Best Bond' bores

The director of forthcoming 007 romp Skyfall has provocatively suggested a certain similarity between Daniel Craig and Sean Connery - something which will no doubt give "Best Bond" pub bores something to bang on about all week.…

Heatmiser PRT-TS Wi-Fi RF thermostat

23 February - 07:00

Hot property

Review  With fuel bills ever rising, keeping an eye on your heating makes good sense, and Heatmiser’s Wi-Fi thermostat is intended to help you do just that. It’s based around a large, 3 x 2.5in touchscreen, which controls a timer/thermostat with its wireless features enabling configuration from an iOS device.…

Unknown fault darkens Australia’s Internet

23 February - 04:08

Australia’s critical dependency: too few outbound routes

Customers of major Australian ISPs are stranded with no connection to the outside world this afternoon, taken out of action by an as-yet-undiagnosed routing fault.…

Aus visual search start-up goes global

23 February - 03:00

Oops there it is

Adelaide based start-up Thereitis.com has raised the funds to commercialise its patented user interface technology.…

Innovation aborted in South Australia

23 February - 02:34

Innovate SA gets shut down

One of Australia’ more progressive government initiatives for start-ups and tech entrepreneurs Innovate SA has been dumped by the South Australian state government, which has pulled essential funding.…

Dimension Data takes on all cloud comers

23 February - 02:00

Public, private, any way you want it

South Africa–based systems integrator Dimension Data is launching a mashup of its IT services and the cloudy infrastructure it acquired last year along with OpSource, in a new offering it calls Cloud Solutions.…

HP insists Whitman is new broom to clean up execution

23 February - 00:32

Damns Apotheker with faint praise

With HP’s latest quarterly earnings looking so poor, you’d expect the traditional financial analyst’s call to be dominated by concerns on the minutiae of performance. But every question was on leadership.…

Harvard boffins cause buzz with robot bee

22 February - 22:00

Our new insect overlords will come in a flat pack

Instead of building a robot, why not print it? That’s more-or-less the approach demonstrated by Harvard engineers with an ingenious and attention-grabbing miniature robot bee.…

HP earnings fall 44% on Whitman's debut quarter

22 February - 21:50

Revenues crash in key markets

Meg Whitman’s earnings statement from the first quarter of 2012 doesn’t look good, as she tries to clean the Augean stable left by Léo Apotheker.…

Spitzer spots first solid buckyballs in stellar disc

22 February - 21:02

Stacks the size of 10,000 Everests found

The first solid “buckyball” Carbon-60 molecules have been spotted forming a ring around a star 6,500 light-years away, according to data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.…

OPERA grabs spanner, fixes kit, and slows down neutrinos

22 February - 20:59

Ye canna break the laws of physics, it seems

According to a breaking report from Science, last year’s famous faster-than-light neutrino finding has been attributed to a cable fault.…

Global DNS takedown plotters disowned by Anonymous

22 February - 20:19

Alleged power grid threat also cobblers, say hacktivists

Anonymous has distanced itself from a plot to knock out critical systems in the backbone of the internet.…

CIA tells big biz to serve up bite-size software

22 February - 19:28

Spies want latest shiny tech on pay-as-you-go

The CIA has told big software firms that it plans to ditch long-term licenses in favour of a slurp-as-you-go approach to new technology.…

Grumble-flick chat site exposes flirts' privates

22 February - 18:31

Oh, put it away - no, too late

The email addresses and passwords of more than a million users of the YouPorn sex chat site were exposed to all and sundry this week following a coding error that went undetected for years.…

Planet-wide cloud dream burst by nations' laws - BSA

22 February - 17:32

Report huffs at privacy safeguards and trade rules

A US software industry report has warned that certain countries are threatening the future of cloud computing with regulations and policies that stifle the fluffy atmosphere.…

India seeks new supplier for $35 Android tablet

22 February - 16:47

Performance grumbles

The Indian Government is seeking extra manufacturers for the Aakash, the $35 Android tablet that launched in the sub-continent in 2011.…

Microsoft blasts 'web video killer' Motorola Mobility in EU gripe

22 February - 16:29

Googorola patents complaint probe launched

Updated  Microsoft filed a formal antitrust complaint against Motorola Mobility this morning in Brussels, following the European Commission's decision to clear Google's takeover of the mobile biz earlier this month.…

GPS jamming rife, could PARALYSE Blighty, say usual suspects

22 February - 15:57

'Sometimes a jammer goes by EVERY FEW DAYS'

Technical experts are once again predicting imminent doom caused by interference with Global Positioning System (GPS) sat-nav receivers. A nationwide UK network of detectors has reportedly discovered widespread employment of GPS jammer devices, and calls are being made for a harsh crackdown on users of such devices.…

Labour targets Tories' Google problem

22 February - 15:38

What's good for the Chocolate Factory is good for us

Labour has chastised the Conservatives for digital economy policies - and is targeting what may be the Conservatives' closeness to Google.…

Inside Apple

22 February - 15:13

More than just a Jobsworth

Review  While Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs was notable for the contribution, by way of hours of interviews, of the man himself, it could hardly be described as revelatory. The darker side of the way Apple was run by Jobs, for example, was glossed over. By contrast, Adam Lashinsky’s Inside Apple aims to get under the skin of the world’s sometime largest company.…

Nekkid Tech: I am Virtual Man

22 February - 15:07

Slicing and dicing, virty tech, Symantec's sueball and more ...

Podcast  This week Greg Knieriemen and trusty sidekick Ed Saipetch (@edasi) go virtual, chatting to special guest Steve Kaplan – Vice President Data Center Virtualization Practice at Presidio (@roidude) – about everything from Nix's rib-cracking antics to VMWare's push into the cloud.…

Biz bazaar Alibaba goes private, watches shares soar

22 February - 14:46

Firm exits market while mulling Yahoo! stake slurp

Shares in China's Alibaba.com jumped 43 per cent today when it announced it was going private.…

Finally a use for PlayBook: Tab bodged into Windows, PS3 remote

22 February - 14:29

RIM's fondleslab needs all the love it can muster

The updated OS pushed out to PlayBooks yesterday can turn a BlackBerry handset into a remote control for Windows 7, or even Android, thanks to the wonders of Bluetooth.…

For those thinking Private Cloud

22 February - 14:00

Here’s your project check list

Live event  Our very own Tim Phillips is dragging some clever sorts from the industry and beyond into a studio to talk about building private clouds. They’re remit is ‘be helpful’ and to give us a, ‘check list for building a private cloud.’ We’re hoping by the time they're finished you'll have something of a weighty steer on what it takes to do a private cloud project.…

Court claim slapped on bloke via Facebook in landmark case

22 February - 13:43

Solicitors' messages - another reason for an unlike button

Facebook messages will become a common way to serve court documents, reckons lawyer Jenni Jenkins, after a judge allowed a legal claim to be sent to a bloke via the social network.…

Will Windows 8 sticker shock leave Microsoft unstuck?

22 February - 13:23

Metro and ARM threaten Vista-like compatibility badges

"Sticker shock" is a US phrase that denotes a shopper’s surprised and generally disgusted reaction upon discovering the true price of an item they’re buying.…

Top Euro beaks to probe ACTA for rights breaches

22 February - 13:01

Reding wants court to check anti-counterfeiting treaty's small print

Europe's Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has asked the European Court of Justice to peruse the small print of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) to ensure that it is "fully compatible" with fundamental rights.…

Logica profits slump in 'much more difficult' 2011

22 February - 12:39

2012? Could be up, could be down

Logica said its 2012 revenues could go up or down as it turned in full year 2011 figures that showed a massive drop in profits.…

Samsung Series 9 skinny laptop priced for Blighty

22 February - 12:32

'World's thinnest' claim

Samsung's refreshed Series 9 laptop has been given a release date, with the compact notebook set to land on consumers' laps as early as next week.…

Spam crashes to historic low as malware explodes on mobiles

22 February - 12:21

Android Trojans soar, Mac viruses fall off a cliff

The volume of malware samples detected by McAfee passed the 75 million milestone late last year, the Intel-owned security firm reported this week.…

Fujitsu flaunts Tegra 3 for future phones

22 February - 12:09

High five core

Fujitsu aims to blow the roof off Mobile World Congress (MWC) next week when it formally launches its latest smartphone, which packs the five-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor - the best a man can get.…

Freedom-crushing govts close to ruling our web, fears FCC boss

22 February - 12:03

Baffled ITC denies plotting internet land-grab

Foreign governments are lining up to wrest control of the internet from freedom-loving hippies, thunders FCC commissioner Robert McDowell in a call to arms in the Wall Street Journal.…

Cameras roll on 'blockbuster' new Who series

22 February - 11:42

'Our craziest adventures yet,' promises Amy Pond

The BBC's spinners have worked themselves into a right state over the news that filming has kicked off on the seventh series of Doctor Who. Viewers are promised 14 "blockbuster-movie episodes" as Arthur Darvill and Karen Gillan embark on "their final, rollercoaster voyage" with Matt Smith's Time Lord.…