Former Douglas councillor admits £190k VAT fraud

Richard Kissack handed in a letter to the Customs and Excise Office the day before a VAT inspection

A former Douglas Councillor who admitted VAT fraud of £190,000 has been given a 22-month suspended jail term.

Richard Kissack, 52, of Falcon Cliff Court, Douglas previously admitted one count of VAT evasion and eight VAT fraud offences.

He was a director and 51% shareholder of recruitment firm Ambitions Limited at the time.

The court heard Kissack had written to the authorities, saying it was "the only way to keep it all going".

Kissack served as a councillor for Victoria ward between 2008 and 2012, and stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for Douglas East in the 2011 House of Keys general election.

'Historical errors'

Investigations showed he had made 27 separate under declarations of VAT between July 2011 and April 2019.

The court heard the Customs and Excise Office received a hand-delivered letter signed by Kissack outlining "historical errors" in the records, on the day before an inspection of the firm's VAT records was due to take place.

Prosecutors said the document was "akin to a confession" to having submitted inaccurate information, but that it also indicated he had never intended to withhold the money permanently.

The letter said he had committed the fraud as it was "the only way to keep it all going" and he intended to correct the mistake in future "when business picked up".

"We could not give everything up we had worked so hard for," it added.

Sentencing him at Douglas Courthouse on 10 May, Deemster Graeme Cook suspended the jail term for two years.