A flurry of press releases in the past week has provided details of successful prosecutions of individuals for cheating the Inland Revenue:

• The director of two companies was sentenced to 33 months imprisonment for cheating the Inland Revenue of income tax of £;350,000. He created false sets of accounts and filed fraudulent tax returns over a period of 7 years.
  
  
• A mother of two was sentenced to spend 36 weekends in prison after pleading guilty after fraudulently receiving over £;6,000 in tax credits and £;17,500 in housing benefits. She was also ordered to pay £;2,600 to each of the three government departments involved in the investigation. This is the first time that an "intermittent custodial" sentence of this kind has been issued in an Inland Revenue prosecution. It allows individuals to work in their routine jobs through the week and only be incarcerated at weekends. The weekend incarcerations commence at 7.30 pm on a Friday evening and run through to 3.30 pm on a Sunday afternoon.
  
  
• A former Inland Revenue employee who is currently serving a 4-year prison sentence for his involvement in a repayment fraud has also been issued with a confiscation order of over £;154,000. This amount is believed by the court to be the total of his realisable assets. If the payment is not made within 12 months, a further two years will be added to his sentence.
  
  
• A restaurant manager has pleaded guilty to eight offences that allowed him to receive £;22,800 in tax credits as the result understating his income. He has repaid all the monies he obtained fraudulently. He was issued with a punishment order for 100 hours community service.

Discuss this news item in the PayPerShop Forum

...back to 23 July 2004


Source:
www.gnn.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?ReleaseID=117272
www.gnn.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?ReleaseID=116361
www.gnn.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?ReleaseID=114115
www.gnn.gov.uk/content/detail.asp?ReleaseID=113665