Lawyer faces jail over unpaid VAT
A MANCHESTER lawyer convicted of tax fraud in July has been threatened with 16 months in jail if he does not pay £48,000 in VAT.
Howard Bradshaw, 59, of Chorlton, was given a six-month suspended jail sentence after an investigation found he had billed clients for £48,000 of VAT which was not passed on to HM Revenue & Customs.
He has now been issued with a proceeds of crime order.
He became a “missing trader”, disappearing below the VAT radar after his VAT account was deregistered in October 2008. This meant he was legally unable to trade above the VAT threshold but he continued to use his VAT number on invoices up to July 2011, collecting the tax from his clients.
Bradshaw was a self-employed barrister who practised on the Northern circuit in family and criminal law but was suspended by the Bar Council for matters relating to bankruptcy and the failure to maintain his certificate of professional competency.
Richard Meadows, assistant director of criminal investigations at HMRC, said: “This was blatant theft from the public purse. Bradshaw thought he was above the law, but someone in his profession should have known better than to try to cheat the system. He has been issued with an order to repay the money plus interest and penalties, or face 16 months in jail and still owe the money.”
