Yorkshire company director jailed for £463k tax fraud

Ian Gibson, who ran a project management firm called IG Management Ltd, was sentenced to 64 months imprisonment at Sheffield Crown Court this week.

The 62-year-old submitted 140 false invoices to pocket VAT repayments and failed to declare all of his earnings between 2009 and 2019 to evade income tax, corporation tax and company charge liability.

According to HMCRC, the fraudster pocketed a total of £463,294 and legal action will be taken to recover some of his ill-gotten gains.

Timothy Atkins, from the Fraud Investigation Service, said: “This was a deliberate attempt to pocket hundreds of thousands of pounds in taxpayers’ money which should have been used to fund our vital public services.

“We will continue to pursue the small minority who think tax fraud is acceptable.”

Prosecutor Ben Reid said: “Ian Gibson deprived the taxpayer of more than £400,000 by evading both corporate and personal tax liabilities. He did so by dishonestly failing to declare his true income and falsifying invoices in his VAT returns.

"The CPS will now pursue confiscation proceedings against him to recover the proceeds of his criminality.”

Gibson, of Riverdale Road in Sheffield, admitted VAT and income tax fraud, and dishonestly failing to disclose information in relation to corporation tax, at Sheffield Crown Court in August.

He was sentenced to 64 months in prison and disqualified as a company director for eight years, at the same court on October 3.