Ex-CIoT president avoids jail following child porn sentencing

A DISGRACED tax practitioner and former president of the CIoT has been handed a suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to possessing extreme pornographic images and making and distributing abusive photographs of children.

Stephen Coleclough yesterday appeared before Northampton Crown Court on charges of making, possessing and distributing extreme pornographic images of children.

In March 2015 he was arrested by Northamptonshire Police’s Paedophile On Line Investigation Team.

In February this year he pleaded guilty and was convicted of the charges.

He was yesterday sentenced to 14 months in prison, suspended for two years. As part of his sentencing he has been ordered to complete the Thames Valley sex offender’s programme, forming part of a 100-day rehabilitation order.

Coleclough was also ordered to pay £1,500 in costs and a £100 victim surcharge, and will be on the sex offenders register for at least ten years.

Coleclough is a qualified solicitor and eminent tax practitioner, serving as president of the tax institute CIoT between 2013 and 2014. He was also chairman of the CIoT’s Technical Committee from May 2005 to May 2008.

He spent 16 years with PwC, culminating in a role as global head of indirect taxes. Prior to that, he was head of corporate and indirect taxes at Simmons & Simmons.

In 2014, law firm Mishcon de Reya hired Coleclough as a consultant as it sought to develop its tax arm.

Between 2008 and 2012 he was president of the Confédération Fiscale Européenne, the body of European tax advisers, which embraces 33 national organisations from 24 European states, representing more than 180,000 tax advisers.

Chris Jones, CIoT president, said: “ I am shocked and saddened by these events. My thoughts are with the victims of these crimes.

“As soon as a conviction was made the CIoT referred Coleclough to the independent Taxation Disciplinary Board, who have the power, among other sanctions, to expel members from the Institute.”