An accountant based in Coventry who doctored clients' tax returns and misrepresented his own financial affairs in a £186,000 fraud has been jailed for two years.

Akeel Mirza began changing clients' company tax returns in January 2012 to generate tax refunds of over £140,000 which he then pocketed. When one client became suspicious, Mirza paid back some of the tax refunds to HMRC, claiming that an error had been made.

Mirza committed a further fraud by sending HMRC bogus Self Assessment tax returns which purported to show his business had made substantial losses, as a result of which he claimed tax refunds totalling £46,500.

Between January and August 2012 Mirza received tax refunds from both frauds totalling £186,500. Following an HMRC investigation he was charged with five counts of fraud and one count of Cheating the Public Revenue.

Paul Barton, HMR assistant director of investigation, said: 'This was blatant theft by an accountant who abused his position of trust and used his specialist knowledge to fraudulently line his own pockets. His employer and clients were totally unaware of his criminal behaviour.'