£85k conwoman spared prison as she’s pregnant
A PREGNANT bookkeeper who admitted running an £85,000 tax fraud has been spared jail after a sheriff said he did not want her to give birth inside prison.
Joanne Mooney, 36, launched a ‘deliberate and organised attack’ on the tax system by pretending she legally completed self-assessment returns to HMRC for clients.
Mooney, a mother of one, submitted fake claims for work expenses, money earned and tax paid and told HMRC her clients were due rebates.
Suspicions were raised and an investigation launched after 58 returns were flagged
A probe found nearly all payments had been claimed from Mooney’s computer IP address that used the account password Celtic67.
Mooney, of Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, appeared at Airdrie Sheriff Court and admitted causing £50,981 to be falsely paid to her and attempting to gain another £35,698 between January 2012 and November 2013.
At her sentencing hearing, Sheriff Derek O’Carroll congratulated Mooney after being told she was expecting her second child and decided not to jail her.
He ordered her to repay £15,000 to HMRC in compensation and told her to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
She will also be placed under supervision for three years and have to wear an electronic tag for nine months.
Sheriff O’Carroll told her: ‘Over a period of two years you carried out a systematic fraud on HMRC meaning a great deal of people got money they were not entitled to. That is a very serious crime and guidance by senior courts says this would normally result in a custodial sentence of years.
‘You very wisely took the decision to plead guilty and that has saved a great deal of court time.
‘You also have a ten-month-old child and yesterday it was confirmed that you are pregnant again and congratulations to you.
‘If I were to send you to prison then you would be forced to give birth while in jail.
‘There is an alternative but it will not be easy for you and if this money is not repaid then to jail you will go.’
Mooney claimed to be associated with male clients saying she was their girlfriend and cousin in order to bypass security checks.
But her web of deceit began to collapse when voice recordings were analysed and found to resemble calls she had made as part of her own personal dealings with tax officials.
Clients implicated in the sting later told police they had no idea Mooney had continued to falsely claim on their behalf.
John McGeechan, defending, said: ‘Her personal gain here was £15,000 and if she repays that at £400 a month then it will be repaid in three years.
‘It was a scheme that was using the same IP address on almost every occasion. It was always going to be caught out.’
Joe Hendry, assistant director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: ‘Mooney abused the tax system by submitting dozens of fabricated self-assessment returns in a bid to line her own pockets. Her actions deprived public services of vital funding.’
‘Deprived public of vital funding’