A WYTHALL company director, who blamed his tax-evading on HM Revenue and Customs losing his business records, has been jailed for four years after stealing £160,000.

Craig McDougall, of Lindsworth Road, Kings Norton, was found to have lied about his turnover and income from his heavy goods haulage firm for more than two years during a trial at Birmingham Crown Court this month.

When HMRC did not receive his business records, the 46-year-old blamed the department for misplacing them.

But investigators were still able to check his bank records against his VAT and Income Tax, which uncovered huge discrepancies.

Officers found that, from 2011 to 2013, McDougall had made a turnover of more than £830,000 but only claimed £649,058.

McDougall also claimed his income was only £16,995 for those years, but had withdrawn more than £235,000 which he couldn't account for.

He was found guilty of the fraudulent evasion of Income Tax and VAT, and on July 14, was sentenced to four years in prison.

Paul Fisher, assistant director of fraud investigation at HMRC, said: “McDougall was naive to think he could get away with this fraud by blaming others to cover up his deceit. He was abusing the tax system and depriving public services of vital funding to give himself an unfair advantage over his honest competitors.

"HMRC is levelling the playing field for honest businesses and making sure that crime doesn’t pay. Tax fraud is not a victimless crime, it affects us all."

HMRC has not released the name of the haulage firm. A confiscation hearing to recover the proceeds of his crime will follow.