Pub landlady rips off taxpayer to tune of £100,000

A pub landlady defrauded the taxpayer to the tune of £100,000 by reclaiming VAT payments months after she’d stopped running the business.

Sharon Roy-Munro submitted false VAT returns while she was running the Ferry Boat Inn in the village of Church Laneham, near Retford.

She and her husband were then declared bankrupt and were forced to move out of the pub.

But Roy-Munro carried on submitting tax returns, which led to several refunds from the public purse.

Jonathon Dee, prosecuting, Roy-Munro at Lincoln Crown Court, said: "The VAT authorities became concerned and began an investigation.

"This started at the pub which the defendant was purporting to run. She wasn't there.

"An alternative address was found for her in York. In December 2017 she was visited by the investigating officers.

"Mrs Roy-Munro accepted straight away that the claims were false. She said she and her husband were made bankrupt in 2015 and she had continued to submit VAT returns as if she was still trading.

"A total of 36 VAT returns were submitted seeking payments back from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. Three quarterly returns were made in 2014 and thereafter monthly returns were made. A total of £111,821 was repaid to them."

Roy-Munro admitted during an interview that she had not kept proper accounts while she was running the pub and were forced to move out of Ferry Boat because she and her husband were made bankrupt.

Mr Dee said: "She said she submitted the false returns because they needed a source of income."

Judge Andrew Easteal, passing sentence, told Roy-Munro that he had considered sending her to jail.

He said: "It seems beyond question that when you and your husband embarked on the business that you did so with only legitimate intentions and no doubt a great deal of enthusiasm and optimism.

"Looking at the way this unfolded those positives must have disintegrated very rapidly until barely a year later the harsh reality dawned that you were facing bankruptcy.

"Over a period of three and a half years you cheated the Revenue of well in excess of £100,000.

"What you did on the face of it richly deserves you being sent to prison today right now. It is by the very finest of margins that I am persuaded not to take that course."

Roy-Munro, 50, who gave an address in Heworth Road, York, admitted a charge of knowingly being involved in the fraudulent evasion of Value Added Tax between 3 April 3, 2014 and 31 October 2017. She was given a two year jail sentence suspended for two years and 200 hours of unpaid work.

A hearing to consider the confiscation of her assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act was deferred until July.

Danielle Graham, in mitigation, said that after Roy-Munro's tenancy of the pub ended she also lost her accommodation.

"The money was spent on day to day living expenses.

"There are mitigating factors. This is a woman of good character. She had demonstrated her remorse by way of her early admissions to the Revenue.

"A significant amount of time has passed since the offending came to light in December 2017. She has been fully aware of the potential outcome of these proceedings since then. During that time she has managed to stay out of trouble and has obtained a job in the pub trade.

"She has brought shame on her family. She is not someone who is ever likely to come before these courts again."