Tax credit fraud

Following a prosecution brought by the Inland Revenue and the Salford Housing Benefit Department, a woman was convicted at Salford Magistrates Court and imprisoned for falsifying her claim for Working Families' Tax Credit and for Housing Benefit fraud. Her daughter, who claimed WFTC while she was unemployed, was sentenced to 120 hours of community service and to pay £;250 compensation.

Both women used a stamping kit to endorse the earnings details that they provided with their claim. The mother received just £;23.23 tax credit per week more than she would otherwise have received had she not committed the fraud. - Payroll Briefing 208 - 13 September 2001

Butcher jailed for cheating the Revenue

On 25 July at Chelmsford Crown Court, the proprietor of two butcher's shops and his wife were proved to have kept false records and failed to operate PAYE correctly, thereby cheating the public purse out of £;464,748. The butcher had been in business for 18 years and his wife was the bookkeeper. Both pleaded guilty to charges of common law cheat. He was sentenced to jail for 2 years and she was given a 15 months jail sentence, suspended for 2 years. Confiscation Orders were successfully obtained against the couple to recover the tax lost and a further jail sentence of 2 years will be imposed if it is not paid by the due dates.

Inland Revenue Prosecutions press release 9/01 of 26 July 2001. - Payroll Briefing 207 - 28 August 2001