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Haulage Company Executives on £4,443 P.A.Y.E. Fraud Charges

16th January 1959
Page 37
Page 37, 16th January 1959 — Haulage Company Executives on £4,443 P.A.Y.E. Fraud Charges
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

PETER RHODES, managing director of Oakleys (London and Scottish) Transport, Ltd., was one of four people who appeared at Guildhall, London, on Tuesday, accused of income tax frauds involving £4,443. Alsoaccused were three other company directors and a clerk. They denied the charges, reserved their defence, and were committed on hail to the Old

Rhodes, of Green Lane, Goodmayes. Essex, was in the dock with his traffic manager, Allan George Stone, Stroud Crescent, Putney Vale; his pay clerk, Walter William Ling, Princess Road, West Croydon; and a former secretary of the company, Miss Jessica Rhodes, Bridge Street, Leighton Buzzard, Beds.

At an earlier ,hearing, Mr, A. L L. Alexander, prosecuting, had alleged that the four had " operated over a period of four years a systematic fraud on Pay-AsYou-Earn" by understating the amount paid to drivers and describing the balance as expenses. He claimed that, from the beginning of 1957, all the pay found its way to the drivers' pay packets, but the tax deducted did not go to the Inland Revenue.

On Tuesday, Mr. Bernard Allan Stafford, New Road, Seven Kings, Essex, told the court that he was formerly a director of Oakleys, and the average expenses of drivers never exceeded £4 a week as far as he knew. When he noticed that the number of hours worked did not correspond with gross wages on the men's pay packets he spoke to Peter Rhodes.

"He told me mainly to get on with my job and he would took after his," said Air. Stafford. Later, Peter Rhodes explained the discrepancies by saying that drivers would not work long hours and pay large amounts in tax. "I understood that the maximum they would pay tax an was 65 hours."

50s. Subsistence Suggested

A driver, Alfred John Hillman, told Mr. Alexander that he did not think he had ever been paid 50s. for a night's subsistence. The amount was 15s. As far as he could remember tax was dedueled from all his money.

Leonard George Davenport, an Inland Revenue executive officer, said that in September, 1957, he started an inspection of P,A.Y.E. at Oakleys. Stone told him there was no permanent record of hours worked, but he kept a rough note and there was a guaranteed 65-hour week for the drivers,

If more than 65 hours were worked in a week, the balance would be paid as a bonus from petty cash. P.A.Y.E. was not applied to that payment. Asked why, Stone replied: 'You could not reward a man with a bonus and then deduct tax."

Mr. Davenport said Peter Rhodes told him that drivers' expenses were liberal, They would receive as much as 50s per night on the Scottish runs. Stone later told Mr. Davenport that subsistence rates would vary between journeys and drivers.

"I said that the inference from that was that the payments were extra pay," said Mr. Davenport. " Rhodes said that

was not so, because the best drivers would make the longest journeys and therefore would receive more subsistence."

Mr. Davenport said Rhodes told of a driver who had been employed on the Aberdeen run but left because expenses of. £27 10S. in one week were not enough. Mr. Davenport added: "Stone said that to apply P.A.Y.E. was to take the cream out of the job for the drivers."

Al! tour defendants were accused of conspiring to cheat and •defraud the Queen and the Inland Revenue through false statements and false (loco-. meets between March, 1954, and June 12, 1958. Ling, Stone and Peter Rhodes were charged with making inCorrect tax returns in respect of P.A.Y.F, for 42 employees on Tune 12. Peter Rheides, Stone and Jessica Rhodes faced a similar charge -concern ng employees on April 9, 1956. Peter Rhodes and Jessica Rhodes were charged with making false returns in the case of five, employees on April 15, 1955, and the three men with making false returns for 41 employees on April 12, 1957, Ling, Stone and Peter Rhodes also faced five charges of uttering forged expenses records fot tire 0111310Yees, itIvOlvirle a total ol ' £906s. Id.

RAILWAY TO STAY OPEN

THE railways have again changed their minds about the closure of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. For a trial period the line between Gayton Road and Fast Rudharn is to be kept open for freight traffic to meet complaints made by traders.


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