A businessman who ran three companies has been jailed for two years after he was involved in a £198k VAT fraud over a 6-year period.

Joseph Rayner, 61, of Hermitage Gardens, Chester-le-Street, County Durham, went to the lengths of ‘downgrading’ his £440,000 home to a more modest £235,000 property on the same street, when a criminal investigation was looming.

Rayner supposedly supplied machinery to power stations in Gambia and Malaysia but his business was found to be built on bogus invoices and counterfeit shipping papers that gave the illusion he had exported goods outside the UK where no VAT is charged.

He then reclaimed the UK VAT on equipment which didn’t exist.

Diane Donnelly, Criminal Investigation at HMRC, said Rayner had “used taxpayers’ money to line his own pockets” but was now paying the price for his greed and should have known the HMRC would pursue him.

“Tax fraud is not a victimless crime – the money Rayner took from the taxpayer should have been spent on running the country’s public services.
“We will bring him back before the courts to recover what he has stolen.” said Diane.

HMRC investigators turned their attention to Rayner’s VAT repayment claims after anomalies in his bank statements were revealed during a routine tax return check.

They discovered that much of the supporting documentation for VAT repayments submitted between 2004 and 2010 had been fabricated with false signatures on invoices.

After giving two ‘no comment’ interviews following his arrest, Rayner pleaded guilty to being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of VAT with intent to deceive at Durham Crown Court on 30 April 2015 and was sentenced to two years in prison.