TAXMAN GAOLED FOR £72,000 REPAYMENT SCAM

5 Sep 2002 01:15 PM

Inland Revenue employee Andrew John Styles (30) has been gaoled for 2 years after masterminding an elaborate income tax repayment scam which netted almost £72,000 for himself and 23 accomplices. None of the accomplices worked for the Inland Revenue.

Styles, of Marford Road, West Derby, Liverpool 12, pleaded guilty to three charges of Conspiracy to Cheat the Inland Revenue. He was also ordered to pay confiscation of £32,000, within 4 months, or face a further 15 months in jail.

One of Styles' co-defendants, 29 year old David Andrew McKenna, of Sudbury Road, Anfield, received a 9 month jail sentence and faces a confiscation hearing on October 4th. McKenna, a former Royal Mail employee, had pleaded guilty to Conspiracy and Theft. He admitted recruiting fellow Royal Mail employees to take part in the fraud.

Dave Hartnett, the Inland Revenue Board member responsible for the Department's prosecution, work commented:

"This prosecution demonstrates our determination to take the most forceful action against members of our staff who abuse the trust we place in them and against members of the public who assist them in fraud."

"In addition to prosecuting fraudsters, we will ask the courts for confiscation orders to ensure that crime does not pay."

In sentencing the members of the public who assisted in the fraud, Judge Clifton said they should recognise that:

"In defrauding the Inland Revenue they were in effect stealing from all honest taxpayers." He also said in doing so they were "diverting public funds from their use in the provision of hospitals and education."

DETAILS

1. Andrew Styles was employed as a Revenue Assistant at Liverpool Riverside Tax Office in James Street, Liverpool 2.

2. He deliberately prepared false documents, which resulted in incorrect entries on Inland Revenue computer systems and the consequent issue of fraudulent tax repayments.

3. Sixty three repayments, totalling almost £64,000 were issued between October 1997 and April 1999. These were cashed by a number of individuals, seventeen of whom were Royal Mail employees at the time of the offences. When the additional allowances received for the non-existent children are taken into account, the total tax loss rises to almost £72,000.

4. The repayments arose from three areas :
- Fictitious periods of self employment in the Construction Industry - Fictitious periods of PAYE employment
- Claims for allowances in respect of non-existent children.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

In addition to Styles and McKenna, details of the 22 other defendants can be obtained by contacting the Inland Revenue Press Office.

Media enquiries to Dave Gostelow : 020 7438 6692/6706/7327/7356 (Out of hours 07860 359544)
Non-media enquiries to: 020 7438 6420/6425
www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk

Inland Revenue
Room G7
New Wing
Somerset House
London WC2R 1LB
Media enquiries: 020 7438 6692 / 6706 / 7327 / 7356
Non-media enquiries: your own tax office or 020 7438 6420 Web: www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk