After pleading guilty to £65,000 worth of tax fraud, a Derby based accountant has been sentenced to 16 months of jail time for a total of seven offences.
59 year old Stephen Douce, co-director of ACA Accountancy Services LTD, spent 5 years pocketing the VAT charged on clients, withheld income on Self Assessment Tax Returns, and claimed two years' tax credits illicitly, HMRC discovered. Douce declared that his household income was £4,500 annually for himself and his wife, when in reality it was over the figure of £56,000.
HMRC's Assistant Director, Criminal Investigation, Stuart Taylor, said:
"As an accountant, Douce was in a position of trust and well aware that he was breaking the law. He chose to do this for the opportunity for making what he wrongly assumed would be easy money, at the expense of the UK taxpayers. He now has to pay the price for his criminal activity.
"If you know of anyone who is committing tax fraud you can report them by calling our 24 hour hotline on 0800 59 5000."
The investigation showed that over a 5 year period between 2008 and 2013, Douce profited £31,905.07 from his clients' VAT payments, all of which should have been paid directly to HMRC, alongside evading Income Tax, £18,203.79 in National Insurance contributions, and claimed £14,111.11 in tax credits.
On 25th November 2014, Douce pleaded guilty to seven offences of fraudulent evasion, and was jailed for 16 months on Tuesday 6th January. Recovery of the stolen money has begun via means of confiscation proceedings.
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