Scots roofer who dodged £250,000 income tax bill by hiding earnings for DECADE faces jail

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A roofer who dodged a £250,000 income tax bill by hiding his company's earnings for nearly 10 years, is facing jail. William Miller, 47, was snared after a major HMRC probe into tax fraud and money laundering revealed he was hiding his true income.He used a firm called Spectrum Financial Services (SFS) to cash cheques and avoid paying proper sums to the taxman.An investigation revealed self-employed Miller cashed 303 cheques with SFS in a bid to conceal his firm Everlast Roofing's real cashflow.Officers from HMRC discovered evidence he had been in regular contact with SFS and a search of his home in Larkhall, Lanarkshire, discovered £1,700 in a make-up case and had £9,500 in a wardrobe.

Miller appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court and admitted evading paying £250,000 of income tax between May 2010 and November 2019.He had originally been charged with failing to declare income totalling £659,178 but prosecutors accepted his plea to the lesser amount.

Depute fiscal John Coogan told the court how the tax avoidance scheme worked.He said: "Operation Incubus 18 is an investigation into the suspected fraudulent evasion of income tax, VAT and money laundering.

It began after another HMRC money laundering investigation, Operation Banjo 14, into a money service business known as Spectrum Financial Services (SFS)."This particular business involved a cheque cashing facility and from that investigation it was suspected that customers of SFS were using the services of SFS to cash cheques and pay up to four percent commission in order to hide and evade their true income from HMRC."It was from information obtained by the authorities under Operation Banjo that this particular accused was subject to investigation.