A KEBAB shop owner has been jailed for two-and-a-half years for a tax fraud worth more than £150,000.

Mehmet Tekagac, owner of Top Grill Kebab and Pizza House in Penketh, was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court on Wednesday, September 20, for the fraud – which totalled £179,154 and was committed over a period of more than three years.

Tekagac, of Viscount Road, Padgate, claimed that he made around £9,000 a year through the Warrington Road pizzeria.

But HMRC investigators found that he earned far more after examining bank records, his personal income and sales made online.

The 43-year-old hid his taking to evade paying £31,255 in corporation, pocketed more than £98,000 in VAT that he had charged his customers and claimed £49,528 in child tax credits as a ‘low income’ family-of-six.

Tekagac admitted three counts of tax fraud and was jailed for 30 months.

Proceedings to confiscate his ill-gotten gains have now begun.

Sandra Smith, assistant director of HMRC’s fraud investigation service, said: “Tekagac is paying the price for thinking it was acceptable to steal from the public purse.

“He took his fraudulent income at the expense of honest taxpayers and businesses who play by the rules.”