A Birmingham man, who forged documents to evade paying VAT, has been sentenced.

Mohinder Singh, 59, of Hamstead Hall Road, ran a newspaper distribution company and forged documents to keep £47,000, an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs revealed.

He claimed to have made hundreds of payments to sub-contracted delivery drivers in a bid to hide the company’s actual sales and evade VAT payments of £47,462. But HMRC checks found the payments had not been made to the drivers listed on invoices as they didn’t exist. Investigators raided Singh’s home and found a laptop with blank invoices on it.

The case originated from HMRC’s Road Haulage Taskforce, which was set up to tackle tax evasion in the road haulage industry. Richard Young, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said:

"Singh knew what he was doing was a shameful attempt to steal money from the public purse that should have been funding the public services we all rely on.

"HMRC will continue to target criminals who attack the tax system for their own benefit and ask anyone with information about tax fraud to report it to our Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887."

Singh was convicted of VAT fraud after a trial at Birmingham Crown Court and was handed a 22-month suspended sentence. He was also ordered to do 150 hours unpaid work and pay fines of £2,000.

HMRC has now begun proceedings to reclaim the stolen tax.