The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Gambling addict given six months to repay £35,000
Court: Former police worker faked VAT returns
A gambling addict who worked as a police administration assistant has repaid half the £70,000 in VAT she defrauded from HMRC.
Wendy Gunn, of Rearquhar, near Dornoch, falsified the returns for her husband’s joinery business to fund her habit and was jailed for eight months in June last year.
But Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood demanded that she also repay the money and he was told last May that she had managed to raise £10,000 towards reimbursement.
Inverness Sheriff Court was also told she had put two properties up for to make up the rest.
However, the court was told on several occasions last year that no sale had taken place.
But defence lawyer Rory sale Gowans confirmed to the sheriff yesterday that one of the houses she had inherited from her mother had been sold and another £25,000 had been repaid.
He added: “But the other house which has had a total of four viewings continues to remain on the market at a price of £300,000.”
Sheriff Fleetwood agreed to give the 61-year-old another six months to sell her home.
Last year, Gunn admitted being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of VAT to induce the HMRC to make repayments to which she was not entitled.
The court was told that she submitted inflated and reduced input and output figures for her husband James’s joinery business.
This occurred over a four-year period because, she told tax inspectors, “she couldn’t be bothered doing the books” and she “made up” the figures.
The court heard she became involved in gambling which did not help her financial position.
Despite a plea not to jail her, Sheriff Fleetwood told Gunn: “I have looked at this case backward, forwards and upside down to avoid doing this.
“I accept your contrition and that things got out of hand but this persisted for four years and £70,000 of public money was lost.
“This was continuing and gross dishonesty and only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
“I have looked at this backward, forwards and upside down”