Director guilty of £160,000 tax fraud

A COMPANY director from Birmingham has been jailed for four years after he was caught stealing more than £160,000 in tax.

Craig McDougall, 46, was sentenced following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court on June 30.

McDougall of Lindsworth Road, Kings Norton, owns a Wythallbased heavy goods haulage business and blamed HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for losing his business records.

But investigators were able to check his bank records against his VAT and income tax returns which showed huge discrepancies.

Officers found that during 2011 and 2013, when McDougall claimed his turnover was £649,000, it was in reality over £830,000.

He also claimed his income was only £17,000 for those years, but had withdrawn more than £235,000, which he couldn’t account for.

The total amount was £161,175.

Paul Fisher, assistant director, fraud investigation service at HMRC, said: “McDougall was naive to think he could get away with this fraud by blaming others to cover up his deceit.

“He was abusing the tax system and depriving public services of vital funding to give himself an unfair advantage over his honest competitors.” of the fraud