Metheringham restaurant brothers jailed for tax fraud ordered to repay £95,000

Turon Miah, 42 formerly of West Street, Metheringham, was a Metheringham Parish Councillor while running the Mowgli restaurant in the village with his younger brother Sufi Miah, 44, formerly of High Street, Metheringham.

The pair were jailed in October last year after they admitted VAT fraud and have now been ordered to repay the money they made from their crimes.

On Friday at Lincoln Crown Court Turon Miah was ordered to pay £39,937 within three months or face another 18 months in prison. Sufi Miah was ordered to pay £55,505 within three months or spend another 21 months behind bars.

An investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) found the pair kept some of the takings rather than putting them through the books for more than three years.

Their crimes were uncovered after HMRC’s restaurant taskforce made test purchases and discovered the pair were not accounting for cash sales during follow-up visits.

Searches of their homes and business address found handwritten notes and ‘takings’ books that detailed the fraud. Back in October at Lincoln Crown Court the pair admitted VAT fraud, failing to report sales of £382,933, between March 2011 and November 2014, and keeping £63,822.31 that should have been paid in VAT to HMRC. Turon Miah was sentenced to 20 months in prison and Sufi Miah was sentenced to 16 months in prison.

An HMRC spokesperson said after Friday’s court ruling: “The Miah brothers thought they could cheat the public purse and take money from the public services we all rely on. They’ve lost everything as a result - their freedom and all the money they made.

“Anyone with information about tax fraud can report it by calling the HMRC Fraud Hotline on 0800 788 887.”