A Surrey man has been jailed for 12 months for a £47,000 VAT fraud uncovered by a specialist HMRC tax taskforce.

John Cahill was investigated by HMRC following suspicions about the accuracy of VAT refund claims he submitted between January 2011 and January 2012. These claims were monitored as part of a London fraudulent repayment tax taskforce, launched by the department in 2011.

The taskforce's enquiries revealed that Cahill's Mayfair business address was simply a mail-drop service, and while he claimed to trade as an energy efficiency inspector his company made no sales for the period.

Cahill was found guilty of attempting to gain some £47,000 from HMRC by submitting false VAT returns claiming business expenses of around £237,000 at the 20% VAT rate. The expenses were either largely fictitious or not business-related and therefore no VAT repayments were due. Around £27,000 was actually paid out.

HMRC announced the launch of a similar tax-dodging taskforce in London on 13 May 2013, which is expected to recover over £7.5m and prevent future repayments being claimed. The department says it intend to follow this up with more taskforces in other locations later in the year.