Dundee newsagent cheated taxman out of more than £1 million

Now businessman is banned from being company director for 11 years

between February 1997 and November 2012 resulting in lost revenue, including penalty charges, of £170,182.

Mr Arshid also submitted incorrect tax returns between November 2005 and 2007, resulting in lost revenue and penalties of £221,282.

Mr Arshid and his wife admitted using the money for home improvements, to pay for private education and to top up employees’ wages.

He has now been banned from becoming the director of a company for 11 years while Mrs Arshid cannot act as a director for two years.

Robert Clarke, group leader Insolvent Investigations North, said: “Directors who put their own personal financial interests above those of customers and creditors damage confidence in doing business and are corrosive to the health of the local economy.

“These bans should serve as a warning to other directors tempted to help themselves first; you have a duty to your creditors and if you neglect this duty you could be investigated by the Insolvency Service and removed from the business environment.”

Mr Arshid was jailed for 17 months last year after admitting he had lied under oath to help clear a man who had been accused of threatening a business associated with murder by the Taliban in 2010.

There was nobody available for comment at the Arshid’s Broughty Ferry home.

These bans should act as a warning to other directors tempted to help themselves first.

Mohammed Arshid was a director of Nethergate Newsagents, which went into compulsory liquidation in July 2014 with debts of £1,044,973.