A Perthshire contractor has been jailed for 33 months for fraud after conning the taxpayer out of £45,000.
David Paterson, 56, director of the now closed Corriedale Contracts Ltd in Perth, was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison after pleading guilty to VAT fraud following a HM Revenue and Customs investigation.
The businessman, of Perth Road, Scone, collaborated with his accountant Kevin Sinclair, 67, of Kirkintilloch, to reclaim thousands of pounds through a system of false invoices..
Sinclair used his company, GD Accounting, to submit fraudulent VAT repayment claims for the company owned by Paterson while another fictitious company was set-up purely to facilitate the con.
The claims were then supported with false invoices created by the pair.
Both men were arrested on November 12 2015 at their home addresses and charged with VAT fraud after interview later that day.
They pleaded guilty at Dundee Sheriff Court on November 3 and were sentenced on Thursday at the same court.
Paterson was handed down a 33 month sentence while Sinclair was jailed for one year and nine months.
Cheryl Burr, assistant director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, warned that fraud was stealing money from the pockets of taxpayers.
She said: “VAT fraud is not a victimless crime as it steals taxpayers’ money that should be spent on our vital public services.
“We ask anyone with information about suspected VAT fraud to contact us online or call our Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.”
Paterson has previously been convicted of fraud in 2008 and twice in 2011 and has been locked up for two of those offences.
The fraudster set up Corriedale Contracts as a property management company in 2013 and it was dissolved in April 2015.
Along with Sinclair, he admitted plotting to create two business fronts which the two men used to dupe HM Revenue and Customs into repaying VAT of £27,736 and £17,656.
Four VAT returns were submitted by Sinclair and generated more than £27,000 in returns payments by HMRC, which subsequently launched the investigation.
Checks were made on Paterson’s business bank account and it was found his company did not appear to be doing any actual trade which earned an income.
The second firm, HWD Contracts, was set up in August 2014 and dissolved in March 2016.
Fake invoices from the same companies were submitted to falsely claim more than £17,000.
