Gabrielle O’Donovan
The Change Press is dedicated to amplifying voices and ideas that drive progress and change. Our mission is to inspire, educate, and empower individuals and communities to challenge the status quo and work towards a more just and equitable world. Director Gabrielle O'Donovan is a long established published author and her work in the organisational change space has won multiple awards. With her memoir 'Gino's Contraband: Guilty Until Proven Innocent' (2025) Gabrielle has matured into a social activist, using the power of words to drive justice and political change.
Memoir / Thriller
Gino's Contraband: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Award-winning author Gabrielle O’Donovan is a self-starter and has built a career as a change management professional, and is excited about living at her new address. When UK Border Police at Heathrow seize 270,000 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, which invoke shame and guilt, and the psychological effect of being forced to prove her innocence in a supposedly democratic country. Gino's Contraband highlights the urgent need for a Taxpayers' Bill of Rights to ensure fair treatment.
