An accountant for two Glasgow restaurateurs jailed over VAT fraud has been handed a community payback order after he admitted reckless behaviour.
Restaurateurs Antonio Carbajosa, 41, and Kevin Campbell, 44, were each jailed for three years last year over a £682,882 VAT (value added tax) fraud.
The pair, who ran restaurants including Halloumi, Pickled Ginger and Cranside Kitchen in Glasgow, admitted fraudulently evading VAT between November 2011 and October 2016.
The pair had been arrested as part of an HMRC investigation which also looked at their accountant Khalid Javid, who pleaded guilty to a separate charge.
Javid, 67, last month admitted “recklessly” submitting false VAT returns for companies which HMRC said were owned by the restaurateurs.
Glasgow High Court heard on Thursday that the VAT returns submitted over three years under-declared more than £136,500 in VAT.
Lord Young handed Javid a community payback order and ordered him to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work within 18 months when he appeared at the court for sentencing on May 14.
Details of the case could not be reported until Javid’s guilty plea last month.
Lord Young said he had decided that a non-custodial sentence was appropriate.
He told Javid: “Your conviction is in relation to a different type of offence to what your two co-accused pleaded guilty to last year.”
He added: “As a professional accountant you acted recklessly by submitting these VAT returns.
“You did not benefit from the VAT under-declarations.
“You are a man of good character, you have no convictions and you have a commendable work history until this very late aberration in your career.”
Solicitor advocate Marco Guarino, representing Javid, said the matter had been hanging over his client for nearly 10 years and had taken an “incalculable” toll on him physically, mentally and professionally.
He had urged the judge not to jail Javid, of Stepps, North Lanarkshire.
Mr Guarino said: “Mr Javid’s former co-accused were well known restaurateurs in Glasgow and opened up a number of restaurants in a very short period of time.
“He accepts he allowed his professional standards to slip and fell foul of the procedures.”
He added: “He quite clearly has been a very valued member of the community both professionally and personally.”
Ben Goff, operational lead at HMRC’s fraud investigation service, said: “Accountants should know better. Submitting false figures to HMRC, whether deliberately or recklessly, has consequences.
“Anyone who suspects tax evasion can report it to HMRC by searching ‘report tax fraud’ on gov.uk.”
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