IT consultant gets 4 years' porridge for tax fraud

An IT consultant has been jailed for four years after lying about his income to avoid paying £170,000 in tax.

Hamauon Khan, 46, also known as Billy Khan and Billy Love, was sentenced after an HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) investigation proved he had failed to declare his earnings.

Khan had claimed he was unemployed for at least six years in an attempt to avoid paying tax and National Insurance contributions of more than £170,000. However, a probe by HMRC revealed he had been working as a self-employed IT consultant since 2004.

Khan spent his untaxed earnings on a "lavish" lifestyle, and purchased two properties with the funds.

Sentencing Khan, Judge Laing QC said: “For a period of nine years through sheer greed you failed to pay tax. Cheating the Revenue is a very serious offence. There has been sheer greed for a substantial period and you have used the money for your own benefit for a lavish lifestyle and foreign holidays.”

Colin Spinks, assistant director of the Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “Khan has to pay the price for his deliberate attempts to steal money from UK taxpayers – money that could have been used to fund vital public services."

Khan was arrested in 2013 and pleaded guilty to the offences on 4 September 2015. On 23 June 2016 at Lewes Crown Court he was jailed for four years; two years for the tax fraud and two years for the child support offences. ®