A businessman cheated the taxman of over £200,000 by failing to declare his true earnings selling clothing on eBay.
Leeds Crown Court heard Imtiaz Rashid was recorded as earning only £5,000 a year working part-time in a Dewsbury bed factory up to 2012 which meant he was below the tax threshold.
But in reality he was making substantially more online from his business, Boutique Clothing, specialising in women and children’s wear.
Christopher Dunn prosecuting told the court yesterday (Monday) Rashid’s dishonesty came to light after suspicions about his purchase of a property using a large amount of cash when he had little declared income.
A visit was made to his then address in Bradford Road, Dewsbury, and HM Revenue and Customs checked his account on eBay and his bank records, discovering he had failed to accurately disclose his earnings for several years through self-assessment.
After deductions for legitimate expenses such as postage, between November 2009 and November 2015, he should have paid £69,523 in income tax.
Mr Dunn said in May 2004, Rashid and his wife had made a joint application for tax credits. Had the inland revenue known his true means over that same six year period he would also not have received £31,611 in tax credits.
Finally the businessman had registered for VAT and was issued with estimated central assessment figures for payment which he was meant to correct if he should be paying more. He did not correct them revealing his true turnover and should have paid £110,000 more than he did.
Mr Dunn said Rashid’s offending totalled £211,789 which the court heard had now been repaid in full.
Mark Brookes representing Rashid said he was genuinely remorseful. Family, friends and members of the community had loaned him the money to make the repayment to the “public purse” but he was now in debt to them.
He had references from his local mosque and others supporting him and Mr Brookes urged the court to allow Rashid to continue working.
Rashid, 35, now of Soothill Lane, Batley, admitted evading income tax and VAT and making false applications for tax credit.
He was given two years in prison suspended for two years with 300 hours’ unpaid work, an electronic curfew for five months from 7pm to 7am and ordered to pay costs of £1,250.
Recorder Simon Jackson QC told him: “You should be ashamed of the fact that you have persisted for so long in this dishonesty.
“You may be a hard-working man but you have been a fraudulent man working for yourself and now you have to pay something back to society.”
