A former construction director has been banned for seven years after failing to declare all of his company's sales income.

Martin Baker, the sole director of Cradley Heath-based C.J.M Tiling Limited, has been disqualified after HMRC identified the company had under-declared its VAT liabilities by failing to disclose all its sales.

On 03 December 2015 and 04 March 2016, HMRC made unannounced visits to CJMT and discovered the company had under-declared its VAT liabilities. Furthermore, an additional bank account was identified in which sales income was deposited.

HMRC raised an officer's assessment for additional VAT liabilities of £205,262 for the period June 2012 to December 2015, as well as applying civil penalties of £90,146 to the company.

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CJMT later entered liquidation on 26 January 2017 owing £469,673 to creditors, including at least £344,221 for VAT. Following the liquidation, the Insolvency Service carried out its own investigations which led to Mr Baker's disqualification.

Following his disqualification undertaking, Mr Baker admitted that he failed to ensure the company declared its true VAT liabilities on returns submitted to HMRC between June 2012 to December 2015, by failing to disclose all its sales. Mr Baker also further admitted that a second company bank account was not disclosed to HMRC. This resulted in under-declarations of VAT due, as a consequence of which penalties were raised.

Jane Knight, Deputy Head of insolvency investigations for the Insolvency Service, said: "Under-declaration of the VAT due by a company deprives the exchequer of the monies needed to provide public services.

"In co-operation with HMRC, the Insolvency Service will not hesitate to investigate such misconduct with disqualification as a director the likely outcome."

(LM/MH)