A West Country accountant was imprisoned this week after pleading guilty to a £95,000 tax fraud: in relation to his hands-free megaphone business.

Robert Leonard Carpenter, aged 64 from Barnstaple in Devon and who traded as “Accountancy Services”, invented a hands-free megaphone – setting up Voicethrower Ltd to market the product.  HMRC checked his VAT repayment claims (which from 2007 – 2012 totalled £95,030); asking for the invoices.  At first he told the taxman that some of them had been accidentally destroyed.  However, he admitted later that a lot of his costs were bogus.

Carpenter was charged with 2 counts of fraud.  He was sentenced this week to a year in jail, and was disqualified from being a Company Director for 6 years.

His Honour Judge Gilbert QC, said: “The fact you are an accountant is a serious aggravating feature.”

How Could Lynam Tax Enquiry Experts Help Me?
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