Jailed chartered accountant must cough up £2.5m

Jailed chartered accountant must cough up £2.5m

Christos Charalambous will face longer jail term for tax fraud if he fails to pay back ill-gotten gains

A FORMER chartered accountant must pay back nearly two and a half million pounds after being convicted for tax fraud back in 2010.

Christos Charalambous, 60, of Palmers Green, is serving an eight-year prison sentence for fraudulently submitting more than 6,000 self assessment forms.

He falsely claimed expenses through client forms then took a percentage as a fee before paying the rest to clients – who would assume he had filed the forms correctly.

As sole practitioner for his firm Charltons, he had also understated the income he received from client fees on his personal tax returns. He also failed to VAT register the firm or pay any VAT.

If he fails to make the repayment in the next ten months he could serve another eight years in jail.

“We are determined to make sure that crime doesn’t pay. This is money that belongs in the public purse, and this confiscation order will ensure it is returned,” said Robert Alder, assistant director criminal investigation at HMRC.

Charalambous was a member of the ICAEW from 1979 to 2005, when he was excluded from the institute for failing to co-operate with the then Inland Revenue.

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