Restaurant fraudster hid piles of cash behind wardrobe

A restaurant owner from Great Barr, has been jailed for three years after a £480,000 tax fraud

Nazrul Islam hid sales from his Derbyshire-based restaurant in a bid to evade nearly £480,000 of tax payments

The 52-year-old’s underhand dealings were discovered when investigators searched his home and uncovered a hidden sales book that dated back five years

Islam was arrested in April 2017, following an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)

Islam’s home in Great Barr and his Jaipur restaurant in High Street, Repton, were both subsequently searched

It was at his house that HMRC officers seized £22,170 in cash

The money was found hidden behind a large marble wardrobe and has since been forfeited

Officers also found meticulous records of Islam’s daily takings between 2012 and 2017 in a hidden accounting book

The number of sales did not match up to those he submitted in his VAT returns

They later discovered that he had also registered a different card payment machine for the restaurant, which was sending payments into a separate account

With the card and hidden cash sales combined, Islam had hidden up to half of his declared takings

Richard Paris, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “This was a determined, well planned and long running fraud, which even saw Islam buy and use separate card payment machines

“Tax fraud is not a victimless crime. Islam deprived vital UK public services of this money and he gained an unfair advantage over honest competitors who pay the tax they owe.”

Islam admitted evading VAT payments, Income Tax and National Insurance payments at an earlier hearing at Birmingham Crown Court

He was sentenced to three years prison on Thursday, May 23. He was also disqualified from being a Director of a company for seven years

Action to recover the stolen money is now underway

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Members of the public can report suspicions of tax fraud to HMRC online here or you can call the Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887