A company which provided home-to-school transport for two Berkshire councils has been ordered to pay more than £1.5 million following the conviction of its director for a major tax fraud.
Berkshire Education Travel Ltd was handed a confiscation order for £1,514,056.71 at Reading Crown Court and has been given three months to pay.
The order follows the conviction of company director David Park, who was jailed for six years in October 2022 after an HM Revenue and Customs investigation.
The then 73-year-old used money from the fraud to help purchase a £3.8 million mansion in rural Berkshire.
VAT charged to councils but not paid to HMRC
The company provided home-to-school taxi services for Bracknell Forest Council and Wokingham Borough Council.
Park invoiced the councils for around £777,000 in VAT as part of the transport services provided.
More than £697,000 was paid by Bracknell Forest Council and a further £79,000 by Wokingham Borough Council.
However, the VAT was not passed to HMRC and the money was instead retained.
Park was arrested on 24 November 2016 and both he and Berkshire Education Travel Ltd were subsequently charged with two counts of cheating the public revenue and one count of transferring criminal property.
They denied the offences but were convicted on all counts following a trial at Reading Crown Court in 2022.
Park was sentenced to six years in prison and disqualified from acting as a company director for seven years.
HMRC secures £1.5m confiscation order
Following the conviction, HMRC began proceedings to recover the proceeds of the criminal activity.
That has now resulted in the £1,514,056.71 confiscation order against Berkshire Education Travel Ltd.
Louise MacDonald, HMRC’s Deputy Director for Economic Crime, said:
“Our work doesn’t stop at conviction – we always look to recover the proceeds of crime, money that should have been used to fund our public services.”
She urged anyone with information about suspected tax fraud to report it to HMRC.
