Jail sentence for tax cheat who dodged VAT
8:53am Wed 9th Dec 09:: written by Glenn Mitchell
A tax cheat from Maidenhead who dodged paying £1.3m in VAT has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Philip Bowles, 60, was sentenced at Oxford Crown Court on Monday.
The court heard between October 2001 and July 2006 Bowles failed to submit VAT returns to HM Customs and Excise (HMCE) and then HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
The VAT related to the sale of land for commercial development in Cardiff worth £7.5m.
Following an HMRC criminal investigation Bowles, from Sandisplatt Road, was charged on three counts of ‘cheating the revenue’.
Peter Avery, assistant director, HMRC Criminal Investigations, said: "This sentence will serve as a deterrent to anyone who thinks that tax fraud is a risk worth taking."
Bowles has appealed against the conviction. Confiscation proceedings are in place to recover the criminal proceeds.
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- This deeply unfair bit of reporting. This conviction is decidedly unsafe sicne Bowles had withheld from him some basic information that could have prooved his innocence. The defence counsel even suggest that the result went to the Court of Appeal BEFORE sentencing! Even the judge was confused as to whether to jail Bowles. I suggest that you look at this http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6949450.ece and tehn maybe reconsider your reporting.
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