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Derby accountant jailed for tax fraud offences

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7th Jan 2015
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A Derby accountant was jailed for 16 months at Nottingham Crown Court for £65,000 worth of tax fraud offences.

Stephen Douce, co-director of ACA Accountancy Services Ltd in Sunnyhill had pleaded guilty to seven counts for fraudulent VAT and income tax evasion and fraudulent activity undertaken with a view to obtaining payments of tax credits.

The counts totalled £65,711.18 and include charges concerning his wife's financial claims. 

From April 2008 to Janauary 2014, Douce's firm received several payments from various clients.

The clients concerned gave HMRC evidence, which proved the accountant provided and invoiced tax taxable services to them to a total of £191,609.70, including VAT of £31,805.07. 

However he submitted nil VAT returns for these transactions and instead kept the VAT. 

Douce suppresed income on self assessment returns for himself and his wife and illegally claimed tax credits for two years, totaling over £14,000. He told the Revenue his household income was £4,500 per year when it was really over £56,000.

He evaded income tax and NICs for himself of over £18,000 and £1,591.21 for his wife. 

Stuart Taylor, HMRC assistant director, criminal investigation, said that as an accountant Douce was well aware that he was breaking the law.

“He chose to do this for the opportunity of making what he wrongly assumed would be easy money, at the expense of UK taxpayers. He now has to pay the price for his criminal activities," he said.

Confiscation proceedings to recover the stolen money have begun.

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By Lship
07th Jan 2015 16:47

I believe you may have an extra 0 in the above and it should be £56,000 and not £56,0000

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By LuKosro
08th Jan 2015 20:02

The sums do not add up

If he had income of at least £191,609.70 in his company, then how come the household income was only an average of £56,000.00? What costs could he possibly have had with his company that would bring his salary + dividends to only £56,000 per year? This assuming that his wife did not have any income during this time. 

I believe that he did not declare any salaries at all under PAYE, or else the HMRC could have known that the household income is above £4,500 per year. 

Can it not be proven that Mr. Douce had "a criminal lifestyle" and be subjected to enhanced confiscation proceedings? 

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