A businessman from Reading, who failed to handover more than £1m in PAYE and national insurance contributions (NICs) from his workers’ pay packets, has been ordered to repay criminal profits of £884,023, within six months, or remain in prison for a further six years in addition to his original sentence
Kenneth Crookes was jailed for four years in September 2015 for deducting income tax and NICs from his employees’ wages, but instead of paying the tax to HMRC, he kept the money and used it to prop up his ailing business.
Each month for five years Crookes ran the payroll for his Reading office furniture business and sent the information to HMRC. However, he failed to hand the money over, ignoring all contact from HMRC. Crookes was arrested for the fraudulent evasion of income tax in February 2014.
He admitted that he was responsible for submitting payroll on behalf of his business and pleaded guilty at Reading Crown Court in August 2015.
Crookes was originally jailed for four years. The confiscation hearing took place at the same court last week, resulting in the demand for £884,023. There is no appeal against default jail sentences issued in confiscation orders, so if Crookes fails to repay the money within the timescale set, he will have to serve the default prison sentence, and the money is still due.
Kevin Newe, assistant director, fraud investigation service, HMRC, said: ‘It is crucial that we stop criminals profiting from their crimes and recover the money to fund public services. Crookes is already serving a prison sentence and if he doesn’t pay back what he owes, he will spend even more time behind bars - and still owe the money.’
