Jet-setting Bootle fraudster jailed over £1.4m tax scam

Nicholas Duffy made 52 trips from his bogus VAT claims

A fake businessman who paid for 52 holidays by stealing £1.4m in tax has been jailed for more than three years.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said Nicholas Duffy, 59, from Bootle, made false VAT repayment claims through a bogus mobility aids company.

Ben Reid, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said Duffy lied to steal more than £1m from taxpayers "to fuel his own greed and lavish lifestyle".

Duffy was jailed for 40 months at Liverpool Crown Court.

He admitted two counts of fraud in an earlier hearing at Liverpool Magistrates' Court on 29 July.

The first count was providing false VAT returns to HMRC in order to obtain VAT repayments of £1,395,994 via his company Market Mobility between 1 August 2010 and 31 October 2019.

The second count was converting £1,395,994 VAT repayments into criminal property.

Duffy made eight visits to New York

HMRC said an examination of Market Mobility's accounts revealed it was simply a vehicle for fraud as the company never genuinely traded and Duffy was listing non-existent sales and purchases to make the bogus repayment claims.

Duffy, of Worcester Road, took 52 holidays in nine years, including eight visits to New York and eight trips to Europe in 2016.

He also spent more than £30,000 on golf, £27,000 on jewellery and £17,000 on tickets to Everton and Manchester United football matches.

Assistant Director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC Tim Atkins said Duffy "committed fraud to fund a lifestyle that was out of his reach" and thought "it was acceptable for the law-abiding, tax-paying majority to pick up the tab".

He added: "No crime is victimless. Tax crime robs our vital public services of much-needed funds."

HMRC will seek to recover the stolen monies through a confiscation order.