Ex-policeman given four years for fraud
A former policeman has been sentenced to four years in jail and disqualified as a company director for 12 years after pleading guilty to stealing £3.1m in VAT, national insurance and income tax.
Richard James Mitchell, 54, of Bank Green House, Holmesfield, Sheffield, who ran companies supplying security staff, had deducted £1.9m in income tax and national insurance from his employees but failed to pass it to the Inland Revenue.
The rest of the missing money was VAT.
Mitchell, who was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court, pleaded guilty to five separate charges of fraudulent trading between 1993 and February 1999 around the Chesterfield area.
The court heard that Mitchell’s fraudulently obtained money financed a lifestyle that included expensive cars, private education for his two children and a holiday property in Cyprus.
Mitchell operated through at least five companies Night Secure (Midlands), Night Secure, Night Star Security Services, Night Star (Guarding) and Critical Control.
Judge Hammond, who handed down the sentence, said that this was a ‘very serious fraud’ that ‘cheated honest people who pay their taxes’.