A nan has been locked up for a £1.2million HMRC scam just days after the birth of her first grandchild.
Lyn Karran submitted fake expenses claims while posing as an accountant. A court heard how the 46-year-old, from Melling, swindled the public purse out of at least £300,000 after filing the claims on behalf of dozens of clients.
She cried in the dock as she was handed a four-and-a-half year sentence behind bars. The judge said: “You have been a carer for your elderly mother, your partner is in poor health and your daughter recently gave birth to your grandchild – the pleasure of which you will be denied for some time.”
Karran, who is also known as Lyn Wilson, previously ran a firm by the name of LK Accounting Services. Between October 2015 and 2017, she acted as an “unauthorised tax agent” – making fraudulent repayment claims for her customers in order to “enrich herself”, the ECHO reports.
She secured a total of £1.2million for 150 clients – most of whom were plumbers and heating engineers whose work she gained through word of mouth and liaised with via WhatsApp – during this period. Peter Killen, prosecuting, described to Liverpool Crown Court today (September 7) how they were “generally on a PAYE taxation basis and unfamiliar with the self-assessment scheme”.
She instructed them to register for self-assessment and provide her with their…
