Joy restaurant owner Motin Miah is jailed for tax evasion

Motin Miah, of Dugdell Close in Ferndown, lied about the takings from his Joy restaurants in Charminster, Southbourne and Ferndown to evade paying £154,763 VAT over a five-year period.

Miah also evaded paying £48,943 in income tax. He never declared his income as being over £7,800 a year to HMRC but put his earnings as at least £50,000 annually on his mortgage applications. He also received income from properties he owned and rented out.

The total value of the fraud was £203,763.

Officers from HM Revenue & Customs were seen visiting the Southbourne restaurant in October 2015.

During interview, Miah lied by saying he was not the owner of the restaurants and did not know who the bosses were.

Fraud investigators at HMRC said Miah used the cash from his tax evasion to "build up a substantial property portfolio".

Richard Wilkinson, assistant director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: “Miah stole more than £200,000 that should have gone to fund our public services. Instead, he lied about his takings with the sole intention of pocketing cash to fund his own lifestyle and build up a substantial property portfolio.

“Confiscation proceedings are now under way and HMRC will continue to pursue criminals who attack the tax system. We ask anyone with information about suspected VAT fraud to contact us online or call our Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.”

Miah pleaded guilty to cheating the public revenue on dates between April 1, 2010 and October 13, 2015 and evading income tax on dates between April 6, 2007 and April 5, 2015 before Bournemouth Crown Court on September 10, 2018.

He was sentenced to 32 months in jail on Friday, November 16.

He was also disqualified from being a company director for 10 years.

Judge Jonathan Fuller QC said: “Despite a body of evidence, you lied in interview and said that you weren’t in charge and didn’t know who the bosses were.”