A restaurant owner from Lincolnshire who had previously been jailed for tax fraud has now been banned from running companies after she deliberately submitted false tax returns to avoid around £100,000 in payments due
Jilan Moore was the director of Beijing Dragon Catering Ltd, the company that acted as the trading vehicle for three licensed restaurants across Lincolnshire known as ‘The Beijing Dragon’.
Beijing Dragon Catering was incorporated in September 2007 and at the company’s height, Moore ran three restaurants in Spilsby, Grimsby and Skegness with her husband.
From 2013, Moore ran the restaurants as the sole director before closing down one of the outlets in Skegness and by September 2016, the trading company went into liquidation.
The insolvency of Beijing Dragon Catering triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service, when investigators discovered that the tax authorities had previously dealt with the company after they picked-up that Beijing Dragon Catering’s records did not match the returns they had officially submitted.
The tax authorities discovered that Beijing Dragon Catering deliberately suppressed sales and under-declared tax owed for just over a year between February 2014 and April 2015.
The authorities sought to reclaim some £100,000 in unpaid taxes but Beijing Dragon Catering could not afford to pay its debts, which forced the trading company to go into liquidation.
Moore has been given a nine-year ban on running a company, after she admitted causing Beijing Dragon to submit five false tax returns which deliberately under-declared tax owed on sales.
Two years prior to her directorship disqualification, J Moore was sentenced in March 2017 to two years imprisonment having been found guilty of tax fraud. She has since been released from jail.
Dave Elliott, chief examiner for the Insolvency Service, said: ‘This wasn’t a case of Jilan Moore simply forgetting to pay the correct tax, rather she deliberately and wilfully suppressed sales and under-declared her tax contributors to avoid paying what she rightfully owed.
‘This disqualification will send a clear message to other company directors that tax abuse of any kind, particularly when it comes to suppression of takings, will not be tolerated.’
Report by Pat Sweet
