Chip shop owner disqualified after under-declaring tax

The owner of a fish and chip shop in Mid Glamorgan, Wales, has been disqualified from acting as a company director for five years after failing to submit accurate VAT returns, resulting in undeclared tax of almost £500,000.

An investigation by HMRC found that Mathew Williams, director of MAW Catering Services, which traded as The Crispy Cod in Tonyrefail, had failed to pay £459,522 in VAT over a five year period from January 2012 to July 2017.

MAW was registered for VAT from 14th April 2008 and submitted returns for all quarters up to April 2019. The takeaway closed its doors on 6th July 2019 and went into liquidation on 31st July.

However, in April 2017, HMRC attended the premises and took copies of sales records for a four month period from the shop’s Epos system. The system did not show if sales were for hot or cold and HMRC concluded that the output VAT had been under-declared by £2,000 a week.

Consequently, HMRC raised assessments to cover under-declared tax totalling £459,522 for the quarters ending from January 2012 to July 2017.

MAW was advised of the assessment in a letter dated 3rd December 2017.

The disqualification was issued on 20th July, preventing Mathew from being a company director until 19th July 2026.