HMRC's targeted tax campaigns lead to jail

A Surrey plumber has been jailed for 12 months for tax evasion after HM Revenue and Customs targeted specific trade and geographical groups.

Melvyn Careswell (49) of Epsom set up a company, MPC Heating and Plumbing, where he traded as a self employed plumber, but never registered his earnings with HMRC. Investigators discovered that over a five-year period he evaded around £50,000 of Income Tax. He pleaded guilty to £50,000 fraudulent tax evasion and was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment at Kingston Crown Court on 20 July 2012. Confiscation proceedings are underway.

HMRC has launched a number of high-profile targeted clampdowns on tax dodgers in specific sectors, including plumbers, central heating engineers, online traders, offshore investors, tutors, medical professionals and VAT defaulters. The campaigns follow similar lines of a time-specific 'warning' to put your tax affairs in order by a certain date....or face the consequences.

Once disclosure opportunities close, taxpayers who have not come forward but are found to have unpaid tax liabilities face higher penalties, rising to 100 per cent of the tax unpaid or, potentially, criminal prosecution.

Mike Wells, HMRC Director of Risk and Intelligence Services, said: "We want people targeted by any HMRC campaign to come forward and use the opportunity to put the record straight and pay any tax due on the best possible terms. It really is better for people who owe tax to come to HMRC, before we come and find you."