Haulage firm director disqualified for £2m fraud

THE director of haulage business Geoffrey F Munford Ltd has been disqualified for committing fraud worth nearly £2m.

Geoffrey Munford has been disqualified from being a director for 11 years after causing the York-based company to submit false VAT and PAYE/NIC returns to HMRC.

Munford has signed a disqualification undertaking after an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

He did not dispute that he caused the company to submit false VAT and PAYE/NIC returns to HMRC.

From today, Munford is banned from acting as a company director, or in any way controlling a company until 2026.

This action resulted in the company failing to declare to HMRC VAT due of £1,758,506 over a period of nine years and PAYE due of £277,581 over a period of six years.

Munford also did not dispute that he caused the company to maintain duplicate accounting records and raise false invoices in order to hide the true level of taxes due.

The company entered administration in February 2013 with liabilities of £2,557,836. Of this amount £1,949,134 was owed to HMRC in respect of undeclared VAT, PAYE and NIC.

Robert Clarke, of the Insolvency Service, said: “VAT and PAYE fraud is a serious attack on the public finances and the Insolvency Service will investigate any director of a company found to have been involved in such activities.”

Geoffrey F Munford Ltd was incorporated in 1973. The company’s registered office and trading address was Stirk House in Tollerton, York.