A FRAUDSTER who conned the taxman out of £115,000 by claiming VAT refunds on a non-existent alpaca farm has been ordered to pay back just £214 - or face a day in jail.
Her partner who made the same amount through bogus refunds on the farm near Wells must repay £95,000 or face nine months in prison.
Caroline Beech and Patrick Ancill were both convicted of the VAT fraud, which they committed between 2011 and 2017 when they were actually living 160 miles away in a flat in Redruth, Cornwall.
The swindle came to light when HMRC officers visited Ash Tree Farm, at Yarley, and found no sign of either an alpaca trekking business or a mixed use farm.
READ MORE: Couple guilty of bogus alpaca farm VAT claim.
They both received suspended jail sentences after being found guilty of fraud at Truro Crown Court last year, where Judge Anna Richardson ordered an investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Ian Graham, prosecuting, said it concluded the total benefit was £230,000 but Ancill’s available assets were £95,000 and Beech’s £214.
Judge Richardson ordered them to pay the amounts within three months during a hearing at Truro Crown Court last week.
At the trial, Beech, 55, and Ancill, 67, of Trevassack Parc, Hayle, Cornwall, both denied the fraudulent evasion of VAT but were found guilty by a jury'
Beech was jailed for ten months, suspended for 18 months, and given a four-month night-time curfew. Ancill was jailed for two years, suspended for 18 months.
The judge at the trial described Ancill as "domineering" and the venture as a "complete fiction".
The couple claimed VAT refunds on purchases of £429,000 for equipment for the farm in every financial quarter over six years, during which time their income was just £58,000.
They received £106,000 in rebates but their string of purchases for the apparently loss making business attracted the attention of investigators.
They both told the jury they had been running a genuine mixed farming business and all their claims for equipment were genuine.
The prosecution claimed they "played the system".
The jury heard that Ancill claimed over six years that his sales were £39,000 but his purchases were £429,000, entitling him to rebates worth £70,000.
Beech reported sales of £19,000 over six years, but that was set against purchases of £214,000, generating a £36,000 VAT refund.
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