A TAX ADVISER who plundered more than £300,000 of clients’ money meant for the exchequer has been jailed for four years.

Martin Buckland cheated two firms out of hundreds of thousands by pretending he was taking payments to look after their tax affairs.

But in reality the 38-year-old was pocketing the money and spending it on himself and his family.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Buckland worked as a self-employed accountant though his precise qualifications were unknown.

She said he was working for Charles Ockwell and Company in Cricklade advising on VAT and tax matters.

Though he was not on the company’s books he used their facilities and had contact with their clients, which is where he met his victims.

In 2001 he took on CCS&N Ltd, owned by Mr and Mrs Sharma, as private clients organising all their tax including PAYE, VAT and even the directors’ own tax returns.

He asked them for two cheques a months, one payable to IRC, which he said was Inland Revenue Collections, for tax and National Insurance and the other HMRC, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.

What they did not know was that ‘IRC’ was nothing to do with the Inland Revenue but one of Buckland’s own ventures – Independent Revenue Consultants.

She said that came to light when the Revenue started asking the Sharmas for paperwork they had not sent and it turned out none had been completed correctly.

Meanwhile Buckland had also taken on a company called Titan (Kent) Ltd which was formed in 2005 and also asked for two cheques a month, one payable to IRC.

Miss Marlow said the boss of that company because suspicious in November 2007 when he made one cheque out to Inland Revenue Collection rather than IRC.

Buckland said IRC was his own account through which he was investing the money which ‘was beneficial to all parties and wasn’t quite legal’.

Bosses at both companies asked for an independent analysis of their books and it was discovered there had been underpayments, so the police were called.

Buckland, of Queensborough, Toothill, pleaded guilty to 19 counts of fraud and asked for 23 similar matters to be taken into consideration, making a total of £337,144.50.

The court heard he had received a four-month jail term in 1999 for stealing money from a working men’s club.

Matthew Scott, defending, said his client was very sorry for what he had done and the only real mitigation was that he had pleaded guilty.

Jailing him, Judge Douglas Field said “You were in a position of trust and your clients placed their faith in you and you breached that trust in this blatant and dishonest way.

“You have cause them not only financial loss but considerable anxiety.”

The court could only confiscate the £487.90 cash Buckland had when he was arrested.