Validate a VAT number

gistfile1.php

<?php 
class vat
{
	function check_vat($vat_no,$state_code)
	{
		$states = array(
						27 => 'RO',
						1 => 'AT',
						2 => 'BE',
						3 => 'BG',
						4 => 'CY',
						5 => 'CZ',
						6 => 'DE',
						7 => 'DK',
						8 => 'EE',
						9 => 'EL',
						10 => 'ES',
						11 => 'FI',
						12 => 'FR',
						13 => 'GB',
						14 => 'HU',
						15 => 'IE',
						16 => 'IT',
						17 => 'LT',
						18 => 'LU',
						19 => 'LV',
						20 => 'MT',
						21 => 'NL',
						22 => 'PL',
						23 => 'PT',
						24 => 'SE',
						25 => 'SI',
						26 => 'SK'
		);
		$found = array_search($state_code,$states);
		if ( $found == 0 ) {
			echo "FOUND - $found";
			return(false); 
			die();
		}
		define('POSTURL', 'http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/viesquer.do');
 		define('POSTVARS', "ms=$state_code&iso=$state_code&vat=$vat_no");   
		$curlObject = curl_init(POSTURL); 
		curl_setopt($curlObject, CURLOPT_HEADER,0);
		curl_setopt($curlObject, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
		curl_setopt($curlObject, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
		curl_setopt($curlObject, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, POSTVARS); 
		$response = curl_exec($curlObject);
		preg_match('/Yes, valid VAT number/i', $response, $matches);
		if ( isset($matches[0])) {
			return(true);
		}
		curl_close($curlObject);
	}
}