Peter Jones, a builder from Wilmslow, won’t be requiring any safety boots or workwear trousers for his wardrobe, for at least the next sixteen months anyway as he will be serving a prison sentence for tax fraud, after been found guilty at Manchester Crown Court this week on nine counts of obtaining money by deception, including false representation.

He had been correctly registered under HMRC’s Construction Industry scheme and employed sub-contractors to work on renovation and property development projects. However, when he de-registered he continued to employ subcontractors for the following five and a half years and failed to pay tax due to the HMRC which he had deducted from wages. This abuse of his position resulted in him feathering his own nest with the total sum of almost £115,000.

This just goes to prove the old saying, attributed to one Benjamin Franklin, that "'In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."