A Midlands based restaurant proprietor was caught using a second set of records, which showed his true sales were double what he had declared to HM Revenue and Customs. The £480,000 tax fiddle had gone on for 5 years. The restauranteur has been sentenced to 3 years in prison.
Nazrul Islam, aged 52, from Great Barr in Birmingham ran the Jaipur restaurant in Repton, Derbyshire. HMRC discovered irregularities in his tax affairs; turning its tax enquiry into a criminal tax investigation. The taxman arrested Islam in April 2017. And, as is routine in such cases, they searched his home and the restaurant. At his house the tax investigators unearthed a hidden sales book; which meticulously recorded the true daily takings between 2012 and 2017; and which did not match up with the figures in his Tax Returns.
In the second such case this month HMRC’s highly successful Restaurant Tax Taskforce also found that Islam had registered a different card payment machine: to send payments into a separate account. Altogether he had understated half of his actual business takings.
The tax inspectors found £22,170 cash hidden behind a large marble wardrobe; which they seized and which has now been forfeited.
Islam pleaded guilty to fraudulent evasion of Income Tax, VAT Fraud and evading National Insurance payments at Birmingham Crown Court. He was convicted and sentenced to 3 years prison and was disqualified from being a company director for 7 years.
HMRC are now using the Proceeds Of Crime Act to recover the rest of the money.
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