A barrister has been convicted in the Blackfriars Crown Court for failing to pay more than £600,000 he owed in VAT.

HMRC investigators found that Rohan Pershad, 44, failed to declare or pay £627,839 of VAT over 12 years.

Instead, Pershad, who practices in London, spent the cash on two luxury homes in Surrey and Somerset, and private school fees for his children.

In February 2000, HMRC deregistered Pershad following a history of failure to submit tax returns and to tell HMRC about a change of address. This meant he was unable legally to trade above the VAT threshold, which was between £54,000 in 2001 and £67,000 in 2008.

However, self assessment tax returns made later showed his income had increased from £85,000 in 2001 to £346,000 in 2008, breaching the VAT registration limit by £279,000. Over this time, he continued to use his invalid VAT number on invoices, thereby collecting VAT on his fees but pocketing the money for himself rather than paying it to the public purse.

He further continued to ignore his VAT obligations which resulted in no VAT being paid from June 1999 to September 2011.

Donald Toon, director for criminal investigations at HMRC said that Pershad's 12-year history of tax evasion was blatant theft from the public purse.

'He thought he was above the law, but someone in his profession should have known better than to try to cheat the system, as HMRC will not stand by while criminals try to cheat the taxpayer.

'Declaring and paying VAT that is due is a legal requirement - not a lifestyle choice - so we are pleased that justice has been served. We would like to thank the chambers involved for their assistance in this case,' said Toon.

Confiscation proceedings are underway.

HMRC currently has a legal profession taskforce operating in London.