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Accountant to repay £195,000 for tax fraud

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1st Aug 2013
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An accountant serving an 18-month prison sentence for tax fraud has been ordered to repay £195,500 or face a further two-and-a-half years in jail.

Ronald Moncrieff, from Nottingham, claimed fake expenses in his own tax returns. He also falsified returns on his wife and son’s behalves over a seven-year period.

An HMRC investigation found that the chartered accountant also claimed expenses on work by subcontractors who never actually worked for him.

Moncrieff has already returned £65,000 from his crime proceeds but faces further payments or a longer jail term.

The Revenue raided his premises in October 2012 and found documents that proved the accountant had overstated expenses and understated sales to reduce his tax liability.

Moncrieff pleaded guilty to charges of completing false tax returns under the Taxes Management Act 1970 and the Theft Act 1968 during his sentencing at Nottingham Crown Court in May.

The charges were of £153,000 plus an additional £18,000 interest.

Assistant director of investigation for HMRC David Cowie, said that the accountant had abused his position and exploited his family in using their names to try and hide the fraud.

“He may have thought his professional knowledge made his criminal activity undetectable, but he was wrong and will now have to return the crime profits or face further time behind bars,” he said.

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David Winch
By David Winch
01st Aug 2013 14:08

Total

So he has already repaid £65,000 and is now ordered to pay £195,000 - total £260,000.  The tax evaded was £153,000.

And of course he got an 18 month sentence.

HMRC will be understandably pleased!

David

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By Sheepy306
02nd Aug 2013 07:52

Lesson to be learnt from this......don't become a reformed citizen and repay proceeds of crime to victims (even if it is HMRC!) before the confiscation order is in place!
Obviously the other lesson is don't falsify over £0.5million of expenses or understate fee income either!

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David Winch
By David Winch
02nd Aug 2013 09:12

The law of confiscation (just like tax law) works in some surprising ways.  That means that a well-advised defendant can gain from some anomalies or 'tricks'.

If a defendant is able to repay the whole of the amount obtained from the victim before the confiscation order is made then he can argue that no confiscation order is appropriate.

If he does not, or cannot, then (in a case such as this) the 'benefit' for confiscation purposes will be calculated using the 'criminal lifestyle' assumptions - and so may be considerably greater than the amount obtained from the victim.

I know nothing of the detail in Mr Moncrieff's case but my guess would be that (a) he was not able to repay HMRC in full before the confiscation proceedings, (b) the £65,000 repayment already made was taken into account by the judge when he made the confiscation order, and (c) as a result of the 'criminal lifestyle' assumptions Mr Moncrieff's 'benefit' for confiscation purposes was greater than the £153,000 tax plus interest which HMRC had 'lost'.

Even so it is likely that Mr Moncrieff would, by repaying £65,000 before he was sentenced, have been handed a prison term significantly less than the one he would have received had he made no repayment - and since he would be obliged to pay up sooner or later he did get good 'value' out of 'voluntarily' handing over the £65,000 at an early stage!

David

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