A WORCESTER solicitor who fraudulently claimed £37,000 in Income Tax repayments has walked away from court with a suspended sentence.
Diana Gerald, also known as Diana Lee, 49, of Astwood Road, Worcester, was sentenced to 21 months, suspended for 12 months at Manchester Crown Court last Friday (September 9) after she was found guilty of four counts of fraud following a 12 day trial in July.
The court heard how Gerald, a family law solicitor and company director of Family Law Consultants Limited which trades as Simply Solicitors, falsified information on her 2009 and 2010 Income Tax returns to over claim tax repayments.
An investigation by HM Revenue and Customs found she did this by inflating expenses, including staff costs and refunds relating to client’s divorce fees, and fabricated invoices, letters and an employment contract to support the claims.
HMRC later discovered the figures shown on her business records didn’t match those declared on her personal tax returns.
Gerald was also ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work. She was also given an 18 month supervision order and ordered to pay costs of £10,000 to be paid back over two years.
During sentencing, Judge Steiger QC said: “She had gone to great lengths to defraud the Revenue – including the generation of bogus documents – and in doing so had attacked the character and reputation of her fellow partners and employees. In my judgment her behaviour was disgraceful and she is wholly unsuitable to be a solicitor.”
Stuart Taylor, Assistant Director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, said: “Dianna Gerald abused her position of trust as a solicitor to defraud the taxpaying public.
“Tax fraud is not tolerated by HMRC, and we will take action regardless of the resources of those committing the fraud, to ensure that no one is beyond our reach.
“Anyone with information about this type of crime should contact our hotline on 0800 59 5000.”
