Darren Upton, who ran contractor accountancy firm Upton and Co has been jailed for six years after being found guilty of fraud at Leeds Crown Court.

Upton admitted to 15 fraud offences between January 2010 and June 2011 and has asked for 23 other similar offences to be considered. He had been previously investigated for running an unauthorised investment scheme and ordered to pay compensation. He had also continued committing offences whilst on bail.

Upton and Co had over 500 clients, the majority of which were IT Contractors. It transpired that Upton had been diverting his client’s monies into his personal bank account rather than paying their corporation tax to the Revenue. His unfortunate clients even had to pay the resulting fines to HMRC for unpaid taxes.

The total value of the fraud was over £500,000 and he was eventually caught after his own staff reported him to the police.