Aleksandr Gebski, an electrician, is the last of 17 tradesmen to be sentenced for his part in a tax fraud investigated by HMRC. The tradesmen included welders, sheet metal workers and electricians from the East Midlands.

HMRC spotted the fraud when looking into the financial accounting of local tradesmen, with many of them knowing each other. The men all worked for a company on a self-employed basis. They were paid monthly however, never registered with HMRC for self-assessment and the money that they should have paid in income tax and national insurance they kept for themselves.

The company was not involved in the fraud.

Gebski pleaded guilty at Leicester Crown Court and received 21 months in jail, suspended for two years.

The 17 tradesmen have all been prosecuted under the ‘Project Dobbin’ investigation with many pleading guilty last year. They received a mixture of immediate custodial sentences, suspended prison terms or were ordered to carry out hundreds of hours of unpaid work.

Brett Wilkinson, assistant director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: ‘This was a group of individuals who decided to keep taxpayers’ money that should have been funding vital public services. As self-employed traders in the construction industry, they believed it was a quick way to make easy cash, with little risk of getting caught - but they couldn’t have been more wrong.

‘This last prosecution brings to an end a scam extending across the Leicestershire area and shows HMRC is levelling the playing field for honest tradesmen. The sentences passed down should be a warning to anyone thinking about committing tax fraud - it’s a criminal offence and we won’t hesitate to use our full range of powers to ensure that nobody is beyond the law.’