Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
A builders merchant in Northern Ireland has been jailed for a £4.5m tax fraud.
Patrick Gerry Small and his wife Mary, 50, from Dungannon ran Greystone Builders’ Merchants and squirreled away millions of pounds in offshore accounts over a 17-year period, Belfast Crown Court heard.
.
Small was jailed for three-and-a-half years, his wife for for two-and-a-half.
The BBC reports that the Smalls at one stage declared annual earnings of less than £30,000 and claimed family tax credits yet could afford to to build 20 new homes, including their own 12,000 sq ft mansion.
The court also heard that when Revenue officials raided their home they found nearly half a million pounds in cash stuffed into a safe.
Mrs Small admitted three charges of cheating the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise and nine of false accounting, while her husband pleaded guilty to two charges of cheating. The pair were arrested in November 2005.
