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A 44 y/o accountant will face a confiscation hearing on 25 August at Blackfriars Crown Court.
Michael Barry, born on the 1st March 1962 of Lucerne Drive, Seasalter, Whitstable, Kent appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court on Tuesday 21 March pleading guilty to ten counts of fraud and was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment.
It follows an investigation initiated in July 2005, by the CID and the Financial Investigation Unit based at Bexley Borough Police following an allegation by Bexley Council. The ten counts relate to offences committed between April 1997 and July 2005.
Barry used his position as an accountant within the council to claim numerous VAT refunds from HM Revenue and Customs, over a nine year period, purporting to be from a school on the borough which did not exist.
Barry was responsible for the department handling VAT returns for all schools in the area. He listed an extra school that did not exist and gave his own bank account number for the VAT refunds based on figures he had invented. He amended council records to ensure his fraud was hidden from auditors.
Over the nine-year period, Barry made transfers to his bank account totalling £224,631.93p.
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