Indian-origin man jailed for falsifying tax documents in UK

LONDON: An Indian-origin businessman has been sentenced to 27 months in prison at Harrow Crown Court in London after being found to have falsified documents from the UK tax authorities.

Vijay Madhaparia, the director of Laxmi Development Limited – a building development company incorporated in 2010 based in north-west London, was also banned from running limited companies for 10 years after the hearing last week.

“Vijay Madhaparia has been jailed for a significant amount of time after the court recognised the severity of his numerous misconduct offences,” said Ian West, Chief Investigator for the UK's Insolvency Service.

“His sentence should serve as a stark warning to other directors that you could be criminally prosecuted for offences against insolvency and company director law,” he said.

Laxmi Development had been placed into compulsory liquidation in 2015 after the company failed to pay the tax authorities a debt of 124,000 pounds, which was later revised to 4.4 million pounds.

The Official Receiver was initially appointed as Liquidator and further investigations uncovered several instances of misconduct by Vijay Madhaparia, the court heard.

In 2012, Vijay Madhaparia was disqualified by the court for three years after committing health and safety offences.

Despite being disqualified, he continued to act as a director and took on various construction and development projects until Laxmi Development was dissolved in September 2013 after the company had failed to file company records.

To get Laxmi Development reinstated, Madhaparia submitted company accounts in breach of his disqualification, which he falsely claimed had been audited and prepared by regulated accountants.

This allowed the building development company to be restored to the Companies Register and receive generous VAT repayments from the tax authorities.

Further enquiries uncovered that Madhaparia had taken on two renovation contracts in 2015 despite Laxmi Development having been wound-up, and he did so without informing the Official Receiver.

“Vijay Madhaparia then proceeded to siphon GBP 91,000 worth of payments for the renovation works into his personal account which he had spent on holidays and gambling, depriving his creditors of payment,” the Insolvency Service said.

Also in breach of his disqualification, the businessman incorporated Classy Junction Ltd in February 2014.

Just over a year later, in September 2015, the company dissolved and Madhaparia failed to file any documents relating to Classy Junction Ltd.

At the hearing on November 11 presided over by Judge Dafna Spiro, the 44-year-old's conduct was described as “a sustained, deliberate and repeated pattern of calculated deliberate deceit and dishonesty committed over a number of years”.