Accountant jailed for defrauding Revenue
A certified accountant has been handed a 15 month custodial sentence and must make a voluntary payment of £75,000 after pleading guilty to 'cheating her Majesty and the Public Revenue'.
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The plea was entered by Christopher Stringer aged 52, of 4 Coldicott Gardens Evesham, in Worcestershire, who began his sentence yesterday after pleading guilty.
Stringer, who qualified in 1975 with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, will pay the £75,000 in respect of outstanding income tax and interest.
He admitted that he had failed to notify the Inland Revenue that he was chargeable to income tax and national insurance contributions from 1985 to 1998.
The alleged overall tax and national insurance liability including interest that was unaccounted for during this period totalled in excess of £90,000.
‘As a professional accountant he must have been aware of the basic requirement to notify chargeability to the Inland Revenue, having already notified HM Customs and Excise of commencement,’ the Government News Network said in a statement.
The fact that Stringer had been struck off by his accountancy body and ‘therefore had no professional prospects’ was taken into account by Judge Matthews when passing judgement.
But he said, in the circumstances he had no option but to impose a custodial sentence
A spokesperson for the ACCA confirmed that Stringer had been excluded from the professional body earlier this year.