Gypsy millionaire spared jail for tax dodging

A gypsy millionaire who dodged more than £90,000 in tax from his lucrative driveway paving business and splashed out on a new Bentley was spared jail today (Fri) .

Thomas Doran, 40, asked his customers to pay in cash or write cheques payable to some of his nine children.

Doran also failed to declare the money he made from renting out static caravans on his plot of land in Clacton-on-Sea.

He received thousands in housing benefit from the local council for housing certain tenants, but again failed to declare the income.

In total the father-of-nine has more than £5 million in assets, the Old Bailey heard.

Thomas Doran began his landscaping business TD Groundworks in 2000 but did not keep any financial records until 2006 when he first approached an accountancy firm in Market Harborough in Leicestershire.

Two years later he set up Clacton Reinforced Paving Ltd (CRPL) and decided to ‘go legit’.

But his book keepers became fed up when he persistently handed them black bin bags full of incomplete documents that would take them hours to sort through.

One frustrated accountant said: ‘Whatever difficulty he may have had with reading and writing, Tommy always had a good head for figures when it came to money.’

Doran was eventually investigated by HMRC, and both he and his wife Elizabeth, 37, were charged with an £160,000 tax fraud.

The first trial in January was halted mid-way through the prosecution case, and Doran pleaded guilty to three counts of cheating the public revenue totaling £94,000 last week.

His wife also faced three counts of cheating the public revenue, but the charges were left to lie on file after the court heard she was still in hospital having recently given birth to her ninth child two months premature.

Prosecutor Martyn Bowyer said it would not be possible for her to stand trial until early next year, and the prosecution had taken a ‘pragmatic’ approach.

In the past year, the Dorans have paid over £375,000 in tax, the court heard, and have only £20,000 in cash remaining.

They still own the land in Clacton and their fleet of vehicles.

Handing Doran a two year jail term suspended for two years, Judge Michael Brompton QC said: ‘You pleaded guilty on what would have been your first day of trial to three offences of cheating the public revenue totaling £94,000.’

‘It’s right to say that the sum is considerably lower than the amount originally alleged by the crown which was £166,000.

‘You were in the business of providing landscaping services such as the laying of brick driveways and brick paving.

‘You took cash payments, cheques payable to your infant children and to suppliers, and also to a car dealership from which you yourself bought a Bentley for the sum of £150,000.’

‘It seems you are only prepared to meet your tax liabilities if you have your back against the wall and then unwillingly.’

‘I accept that your business was not set up for the purposes of fraud, if it had been that would have been an aggravating feature.’

‘You have always been a relatively wealthy man who had always been in a position to pay what you owe without discomfort.

‘In light of the recent payments your liquid assets have been much diminished, but from what I am told you have property assets to the value of £5 million.’

Doran wiped his brow as he learned his sentence would be suspended due to the recent birth of his child and his mother’s terminal lung cancer.

He was also ordered to pay a £5,000 and £6,000 in prosecution costs in the next two years.

Prosecutor Martyn Bowyer told the Old Bailey: ‘He is a man who didn’t see why he should pay any tax if it could be avoided.’

Mr Bowyer said: ‘Having operated in the black economy for a number of years he entered into negotiations to put his tax affairs in order.

‘He registered for VAT and in 2010 reached a settlement with HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) agreeing to make monthly repayments of all the back tax that he owed.’

Doran signed a declaration that he had disclosed all relevant information in January 2011 – but continued to try and hide his true income.

Mr Bowyer said: ‘In reality he operated CRPL in a way that diverted money from the books of that company to pay suppliers without it showing up in records by asking customers for cash or by cheques made out to third parties.’

His customers in Suffolk and Essex were asked to make their cheques payable to his wife, his adult child Miles and his young children Edward, Isaiah, Roseanne, Felix and Thomas Junior, the court heard.

The second youngest, Isaiah, was born in October 2011 and would have been a baby at the time, the court heard.

He even got one customer to put down the deposit on his £150,000 Bentley.

Doran, of Spring House, Gutteridge Hall Lane, Weeley, Clacton-on-Sea, admitted three counts of cheating the public revenue in relation to Corporation Tax, VAT and rental incomes.

ENDS