Jail for designer who fashioned a £100k tax dodge

A FASHION designer who built up a property empire has been jailed for tax fraud and money laundering.

Uwe Doering cheated the taxpayer out of more than £100,000 and rinsed more than £85,000 of dirty money through the housing market, using it to help buy seven properties.

Doering, who designs and sells clothing through his company, Uwe Raw Cotton, failed to declare his true earnings over a seven-year period.

As a result, the 52-year-old, whose clothing features at shows and exhibitions around the country, kept £114,665 that should have gone to the tax man and laundered £85,334 through property.

Doering, of Cleadon Lane, Cleadon, South Tyneside, admitted two charges of cheating Revenue and Customs, one offence of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of income tax and one of transferring criminal property.

Prosecutor Sue Hirst told the court Doering’s dishonesty was discovered when officers from HM Revenue and Customs began an investigation into his firm Laundrylines Ltd, which trades as Uwe Raw Cotton.

Miss Hirst added: “The defendant dishonestly failed to register the business for VAT and consequently defrauded the public purse.

“He did not pay Corporation Tax because he had failed to provide his accountant with accurate figures about the true profits of the business.

“In relation to personal income tax, he submitted dishonest self-assessment tax returns each year for six years, significantly under-declaring his income.”

The court heard Doering’s clothing company had paid just £479 in tax between 2010 and 2016 and was not registered for VAT.

He claimed to use one bank account for the firm, which had processed £466,671 in customer card sales between February 2011 and April 2017.

But investigators revealed he had another account, which had processed a further £441,849 over a similar period.

Miss Hirst told the court: “In addition to the failure to pay VAT, the defendant should also have paid 20% Corporation Tax on the profits of the company.

“The remainder would then have formed part of his personal income and would have been relevant to the amount of income tax he had to pay.”

The court heard Doering used cash towards the purchase or conveyancing fees for his seven rental properties, which were in South Tyneside and Sunderland.

Miss Hirst said he did not declare the full amount of rental income which Uwe Doering

was generated from the properties.

At Newcastle Crown Court, Judge Penny Moreland sentenced him to a total of 29 months behind bars.

The judge told him: “Your fraudulent behaviour occurred over a period of seven years, during which time you provided dishonest self-assessment forms in respect of income tax and company accounts which you knew did not represent the true position.”

Toby Hedworth QC, defending, said Doering, who is originally from East Germany, met his wife in Tenerife in the late 1980s and they settled in the UK in the 1990s. Mr Hedworth said the family’s main income was from the property market and that Doering set up Uwe Raw Cotton in 2002, making clothing that has featured in shows and exhibitions around the UK. He said the clothing company has “not been a great money spinner” and that Doering sleeps in his van at shows rather than spend money on accommodation.

Mr Hedworth said Doering has £200,000, which he raised through selling and re-mortgaging property, in a bank ready to pay back to the authorities, which he had offered from the outset, in a bid to stop the criminal proceedings.

He added: “From the word go he accepted he has not been paying as much tax as he should have.

“This was effectively a one-manband business that reached the point where the tax that should have been paid was not being paid.”

After the case, Cheryl Burr, assistant director of the fraud investigation service at HMRC, said: “This was a deliberate attempt to pocket money which should have been used to fund our vital public services.

“Most individuals and businesses pay their fair share of tax, but we will continue to pursue the minority who think tax fraud is acceptable. We encourage anyone with information about tax fraud to report it online, or to call 0800 788 887.” Cheryl Burr

This was a deliberate attempt to pocket money which should have been used to fund public services