LONDON (Bloomberg) — The UK said it prevented attempts to defraud the wholesale power and natural-gas markets and steal value added tax.

"We identified a few attempted fraudsters in the last month," Steve Pope, national coordinator for missing trader intra-community fraud at Britain's revenue and customs agency, said today in an interview in London. "We snuffed them out."

The UK last year started investigations of "carousel fraud," where traders collect tax and disappear before turning it in to authorities, in the European carbon market. Europe lost about 5 billion euros ($6.4 billion) in revenue for the 18 months ending in 2009 because of the fraud in the CO2 market, according to Europol, a European law-enforcement agency.

A "handful" of instances were found in the gas and power markets, Pope said, declining to name the companies involved or provide further details. "It's a threat," he said. "We want to keep it as a threat."

British energy regulator Ofgem will introduce a new, three- tier risk-based process on September 21 to reduce the prospect of fraud in the gas and power markets, spokeswoman Alison Wright said last week.