A millionaire shooting club owner and businessman, who paid a bookkeeper and an accountant to keep meticulous records but never submitted the returns they prepared, has now been given a two-year sentence for failing to pay over £1.3m in tax, following an HMRC investigation
Peter Duffield, from Orpington, ran two profitable businesses - a 50-fleet haulage business in Essex and a shooting club in Dartford - but did not submit a single tax return on his earnings, including profits from the sale of three properties.
The investigation found that Duffield had failed to declare his earnings between 2007 and 2014, despite his bookkeeper and accountant urging him to do so. When he was arrested at his home in June 2015, he told investigating officers that he had not submitted his self assessment tax returns for the last seven years because he was not a ‘paperwork person’.
This was despite a prior warning from HMRC under civil legislation to keep his tax affairs in order. Arresting officers also seized more than £20,000 in cash found in his car and wardrobe.
The fraud was uncovered by an HMRC property taskforce, set up to identify those who avoid paying tax on property transactions. Duffield had not paid capital gains tax on a property he had sold, breaching an earlier agreement that gave him the opportunity to get his tax affairs in order.
HMRC officers discovered that while Duffield had kept meticulous business records, and ensured that his bookkeeper and accountant were notified of all receipts and earnings, he never signed or posted the tax returns they prepared on his behalf, claiming that he thought they had submitted the paperwork.
Officers discovered Duffield had spent the money due to be paid over as tax on extravagant lifestyle expenses, including mortgages on two properties, family holidays to Marbella, Rolex watches, investments in phosphate mining in Iraq, a gun collection and at least nine vehicles. Among the vehicles he owned were six Land Rovers, some with personalised number plates. HMRC put the total value of his tax fraud at £1,364,813.
Paul Barton, assistant director, fraud investigation service, HMRC, said: ‘Duffield could have avoided jail, and was given every opportunity to get his tax affairs in order. However, despite warnings and advice from professionals, Duffield showed a blatant disregard for the tax system and funded a lavish lifestyle at taxpayers’ expense.’
Duffield will serve two years in prison and two on licence. The judge at the Old Bailey said on sentencing that, ‘you knew full well what your obligations were. Your evasion was deliberate and dishonest, choosing instead to do the bare minimum and then only when backed into a corner’.
A confiscation hearing to recover the proceeds of his crime will follow.
