Fraud golf pro has sentence deferred... to build a fence
A GOLF professional who bought his own course then pocketed more than £150,000 in VAT has had a likely jail term deferred so he can build a fence.
Jon Wiggett was due to learn his fate at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday.
But his lawyer, Mike Chapman, asked Sheriff Sara Matheson to allow his client to keep his freedom for a little longer to safeguard his wife Claudia’s accommodation. Mr Chapman explained that the land on which Brahan Golf Club, outside Conon Bridge, Ross-shire, is situated was leased from the Brahan Estate. The lease includes the Wiggetts’ house, which they operate as a bed and breakfast.
Mr Chapman said: ‘He needs time to get his affairs in order before a likely custodial sentence is imposed. The land will be returned to grazing for a local farmer but extensive fencing is required and my client has to provide it.
‘Since he has no money to pay someone, he has to do the work himself which will take three to four weeks. That will allow his wife to continue living in the house and running her business.’
Sheriff Matheson agreed to postpone dealing with Wiggett until April 14.
At an earlier hearing, Wiggett, 50, admitted fabricating VAT returns with false invoices and defrauding the Inland Revenue of £154,091 between November 2013 and January 2017, paying the money into his own account.
Depute fiscal Karen Aitken said the case was highlighted to HMRC’s Individual and Small Business Compliance Department as part of a repayment taskforce due to the volume of VAT repayments he had received. She added: ‘HMRC officers based in their Inverness office contacted Jon Wiggett in February 2017 to arrange to visit his premises to inspect his books and records on April 25, 2017.’
Wiggett was present and various documents were given to compliance officers to substantiate the figures on the VAT submissions.
The documents were referred
‘Has no money to pay someone’
to the HMRC Fraud Investigations Service.
A search was carried out at the golf club on October 17, 2017, and various items relating to the business were seized, along with a laptop.
Investigations found that invoices had been fraudulently created and a subsequent examination of the laptop showed the invoices were stored there.
Wiggett started playing golf at the age of five. As a sevenyear-old he became a member of the Dewsbury and District Golf Club, where he received a 24 handicap in the same year.
At the age of 15 he had a zero handicap and became North East Junior Stroke Play Champion in 1985 when he achieved the national junior ranking of 17th in Great Britain.
Since 1995 he has spent a large part of his career based in Switzerland as a golf professional, head greenkeeper, golf course architect and golf course manager.
Wiggett’s dream of running his own course began in 2009 when he registered the club for VAT. It opened in 2011.
Brahan started as a nine-hole course but was extended to 18 holes with nine shared greens.