The film was the result of an attempt to claim £2.8 million in tax credits. Bashar Al-Issa, Aoife Madden, Tariq Hassan, Ian Sherwood, and Osama Al Baghdady all claimed that a Jordanian film company was financing a larger-scale version of the film, with a projected budget of over £19 million. When the group tried to claim VAT and tax credits, an investigation by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) discovered that no work had been done on the film, and most of the named suppliers had never heard of the project. The group was arrested. While on bail, they made this film, with a much smaller budget, in an attempt to escape prison. Al-Issa was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue; the rest were convicted of one count. On March 25, 2013, the five received prison sentences ranging from three years, six months to six years.
The film won the Silver Ace Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival. It was stripped of the award after the judges learned that it wasn't screened at any of its participating cinemas.
Subject of the BBC4's documentary The Great Gangster Film Fraud.
On May 25th 2011 a rough first draft was handed in by Paul Knight. He was hired and given a 4 month deadline to get a shoot ready draft of the script, oversee pre-production, audition, cast, crew, go into production and complete the post on the film so it was ready for the AFM (American Film Market) that takes place in November; all for a budget of £100k. Paul brought the feature film in, on time, and £16k under budget.