Timothy Bentley, 62, from Cheshire and his son James Bentley, 36, from Sutton Coldfield were found to have set up the construction companies to fraudulently claim over £500,000 tax back on supplies for new build homes which were never built.

HMRC found that the Bentleys had set up two companies, J Bentley Construction Ltd and Warwickshire Engineering Supplies Ltd, and had operated Buildtech Construction 33 Ltd. Between August 2009 and December 2012 the pair made 15 VAT repayment claims totalling £515,721.56.

A third man, Salim Rahman, 30, from Stoke-on-Trent, was also found to have set up a bank account for Buildtech Construction Ltd, which was used to cash the fraudulent repayment cheques.

“Timothy and James Bentley had set up and operated these construction companies for no other reason than to fraudulently claim back VAT paid on building materials,” Richard Young, Assistant Director of the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said.

“Our investigations showed that the invoices the defendants provided to us were bogus – there were never any construction supplies and never any new build houses.”

Both Timothy and James Bentley pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cheat the public revenue. James additionally pleaded guilty to money laundering. The pair were sentenced at Stafford Crown Court to two years in jail. 

Salim Rahman pleaded guilty to money laundering and was handed a 10-month jail sentence, suspended for 12 months. He was also given a 125-hour unpaid community work order.