VAT fraudster who claimed he was keeping his company afloat gets 30 months

A company director who scammed the taxpayer out of more than £400,000 in unpaid VAT has been jailed for two and a half years. Mashallah Ali, 54, underpaid tax through his company Eclipse Sat Ltd over at least four years claiming he was trying to keep his company afloat. He got accounts manager Susan Kerr, 56, to underpay HMRC. Kerr was earlier cleared by a jury of wrongdoing as she feared if she had not followed orders she would have…