Jail time for tax credit fraudster
Aurangzeb Shah, 32, of Princess Street, Great Harwood has been jailed for nine months after pleading guilty to 14 separate charges of false accounting.
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Shah, a father-of-two, appeared at Preston Crown Court to face the charges brought by the Inland Revenue after he had provided false employment information on a working families tax credit application in order to obtain tax credits that were not due.
He also managed to obtain working families tax credit order books to which he was not entitled and cashed the orders.
Judge Brian Duckworth, passing sentence, said: ‘You have a significant background of fraud and deception, dishonest from the start. You have been before the court on considerable occasions before on other matters. You are not a man of good character and are a fraudster. This was a sophisticated, planned attack and you knew how to maximise the benefits that you would get. This was a substantial amount of money from public funds and in my judgement is a serious offence. Those who deliberately, blatantly and persistently milk the system must receive a custodial sentence.’
The amounts fraudulently obtained totalled £9,357.