A father and son who ran businesses that bought and sold horse boxes have been sentenced after an investigation into a £1.5 million VAT fraud.

Geoffrey Butchers, 71, of Daventry, Northamptonshire, registered his new Horsebox selling business (Autojoint) with HMRC in 2004 but then deregistered the company three years later and told HMRC he had stopped trading: failing to declare any of its sales from 2007 to 2015. He then set up Horseboxseller Ltd – but lied on his tax returns about the value of its sales.

Geoffrey Butchers pleaded guilty to VAT fraud of £1,582,501, and his son Phillip pleaded guilty to money laundering £199,440. They were sentenced at Northampton Crown Court 4 September 2019. Geoffrey Butchers was jailed for 26 months. Phillip Butchers got a 20-month prison sentence (suspended for two years), and was also ordered to do 180 hours unpaid work and to pay costs of £2,000.

HMRC, said: “More than £40,000 was found hidden in a bathroom safe, and action to recover more than £1.5 million of stolen money is now underway”.

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