Payroll company director counting jail sentence

The director of three payroll and bookkeeping companies who stole more than £250,000 over a seven-year period to keep his business afloat by pocketing his employees’ tax and national insurance contributions (NICs) and failing to pay VAT bills, has been jailed for two years.

Andrew Bettis was director of three Chelmsford companies providing bookkeeping and payroll services, operating under the Cheverhall umbrella name. When HMRC officers visited the businesses to check their records they found that a number of VAT and PAYE returns had not been completed or contained wrong information.