Director jailed for £770,000 tax fraud

A FRAUDSTER from Warrington who dodged paying over £770,000 income tax, national insurance and VAT has been jailed for 16 months.
Rajinder Singh Bhattle, aged 55, of Castle Green, Westbrook, was part of a family firm caught fiddling the books.
Along with three other family members who live down South, he failed to pass on the tax and national insurance contributions deducted from staff salaries to the Inland Revenue (HMRC).
They set-up a sham company called Tempaid Ltd, to avoid paying the taxes and to suppress the VAT liability of their legitimate company, Multiple Construction Ltd.
Reading Crown Court heard that the workforce was never transferred from Multiple Construction. Tempaid was in effect used as a hidden bank account to under-declare the profits of Multiple Construction. Multiple Construction would issue cheques for payment of false invoices to Tempaid.
The funds were then withdrawn and used to pay employee wages in cash. Tempaid never invoiced Multiple Construction to cover the hours worked and the taxes due.
During the investigation, HMRC found that of the 200 employees of Multiple Construction only 87 were identified as using legitimate National Insurance numbers. The payroll records showed that false National Insurance numbers were used by the fraudsters for the balance of their employees.
Along with his brother in law and cousin, the three were jailed for a total of seven and half years and Rajinder Singh Bhattle was disqualified from being a company director for five years. A fourth family member received a suspended prison sentence.
Andrew Pavlinic, assistant director of criminal investigation for HMRC said:”These people have not only evaded paying taxes, robbing the public purse, but have also stolen from the pockets of their employees.
“We take a serious view of such conduct and will actively pursue those who commit such fraud to the full extent of the law. These sentences will serve as a deterrent to anyone considering committing tax fraud.”