"You’ll be tearing your hair out alongside Gabrielle in this emotive account of mistaken identity."
Gino's Contraband: Guilty Until Proven Innocent by Gabrielle O'Donovan tells the author’s experience with HMRC while being pursued for a missing tax payment that was not hers. When providing background Gabrielle shows herself to be an average hardworking woman who has lived in Hong Kong, Ireland and London while pursuing her career with industry acclaim. So when a badly formatted, badly written letter from HMRC comes through her door, she knows the key signs of a scam and quickly ignores it. What follows is years of stress, frustration and stonewalling with very few answers. From thinking that she’s the target of a criminal gang to discovering the (real) HMRC’s tactics of publishing the private information of individuals and businesses who have “avoided paying tax” and harassing for payment but when contacted being as useful as a chocolate teapot.
The author's emotions come across so clearly in this book that I was frustrated along with her, exclaiming each time she was passed to a different department or given a none answer to any of her enquiries. Anyone that has seen the struggle of the post office workers caught up in the Horizon scandal will see similar experiences here. But the scope of this story doesn’t end with Gabrielle and her case of mistaken identity, as it also touches on those affected by the Loan Charge legislation that sees up to 100,000 workers facing ruin.
A shocking and emotive tale shining a light on a harrowing experience that leaves people feeling isolated, shamed and helpless, driving some to the worst. This powerfully shares Gabriella’s story and is a call for reflection and change to HMRC processes that I hope receives the attention it deserves.
Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading Ambassador
| Primary Genre | Biographies & Autobiographies |
| Recommendations: |
Gabrielle O’Donovan is a self-starter and has built a career as a change management professional. When UK Border Police at Heathrow seize 270,000 smuggled cigarettes destined for a certain Gino at Miki National Co. Ltd., Gabrielle receives related correspondence which looks like a scam. In time, Gabrielle learns that the UK tax authority - His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - has decided she was the intended recipient. As Gabrielle is pursued, HMRC treats her as guilty until she can prove her innocence. Why are her human rights not being respected? As the case takes its toll on her, Gabrielle is advised that it is very difficult to 'prove a negative' (that she is not Gino) in a court of law. To compound matters, when her best friend confides that she is a victim of the HMRC Loan Charge Scandal and is being subjected to similar tactics, Gabrielle finds herself on suicide watch.
Gino’s Contraband is Gabrielle’s candid, eye-opening and often shocking account of the challenges of distinguishing scams from the legitimate, the impact of being wrongly accused by HMRC, the harm caused by sinister tactics employed by HMRC to invoke shame and guilt, and the psychological effect of being forced to prove her innocence in a supposedly democratic country. In her insightful book, Gabrielle also reveals how the contentious Loan Charge legislation informed how she too was treated, the industrial scale damage being caused by HMRC on society, and what - together - these and other 'guilty until proven innocent' cases say about the state of democracy in the UK.
Gino's Contraband highlights the urgent need for a taxpayers' Bill of Rights to ensure fair treatment.
Gino's Contraband: Guilty Until Proven Innocent features in the following genres: Indie Author Books, Indie Books We Love, Biographies & Autobiographies
Gino's Contraband: Guilty Until Proven Innocent is available in Paperback
Gino's Contraband: Guilty Until Proven Innocent was written by Gabrielle O'Donovan and published by The Change Press
