Trio ran sites in Hampshire, Dorset and Surrey, using the money to prop up their loss-making business empire and fund a luxury lifestyle
Pub kitchens push out a record three million turkey dinners
Growth in traditional pub meals on Christmas Day helps to deliver a £150m windfall for industry
Directors of restaurant chain cooked the books and pocketed tips in £800,000 fraud
HMRC: “Fraudsters abused the tax system in a cynical and systematic way to help fund their lifestyles”
Suppliers to suffer when customers go bust after change to creditor rules
HMRC awarded preferred creditor status, meaning trade creditors could be pushed further down the pecking order
OPINION: Is HMRC’s ‘hot or not’ test unfairly penalising cafe and restaurant owners?
Foodservice business owners might be being unfairly penalised by HMRC, in particular for how VAT is applied on food applying the ‘hot or not’ test, writes Annette Stone of Thomas Westcott Chartered Accountants. A client who operates a takeaway recently found themselves the subject of an HMRC VAT investigation. HMRC has a taskforce dedicated to looking…
Curry house conman sentenced for £117,000 takeaway
An Indian restaurant owner who lined his pockets by stealing the VAT he charged his customers for takeaway meals has been handed a suspended prison sentence. Sokrum Ahmed, 47, who owns Red Chilli in Whitechapel, East London, creamed off the £117,000 VAT he charged customers over four years of sales via online delivery services. He…
Administrators put Hotcha’s assets up for sale after £35m money laundering probe
Administrators are hoping to find a buyer for the assets of Chinese takeaway Hotcha following its dramatic collapse in the wake of a £35m money laundering operation. Moorfields Advisory Limited was brought in last week to try and sell all or part of its assets after the group stopped trading. Hotcha operated a Chinese takeaway…
Catering business gang served up a £240k fraud
The mastermind of a six-strong gang that laundered £240,000 by setting up a fake catering business has been jailed for three and a half years. Michael Akindele, 50, of Carshalton, Surrey, set up the firm to fraudulently claim VAT payments totalling £240,974.29, and, with five others, laundered the money through their bank accounts. But investigators…
Jail time for Edinburgh restaurateur guilty of £87,000 VAT evasion
The owner of two Indian restaurants in Edinburgh has been sentenced to 21 months in prison after his VAT evasion was uncovered by an HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigation. Hermann Rodrigues, 55, from Kilmaurs Terrace, Edinburgh, the former proprietor of two restaurants in the city, was detained in December 2011 on suspicion of VAT…
HMRC’s undercover ‘restaurant taskforce’ busts councillor who cooked the books
A parish councillor and his brother, who lied about the takings at their Lincolnshire restaurant to steal almost £64,000 in tax, have been jailed. Turon Miah served the community as a Metheringham Parish Councillor between October 2012 and March 2015 while running Mowgli in the local village, with his younger brother Sufi Miah. But an…
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