A WREXHAM man who was 'living the life of Riley' after fraudulently claiming more than £1.89m in VAT has been jailed.

Graham Drury, of Ridleywood Court, appeared at Mold Crown Court on Tuesday.

The 69-year-old had previously admitted being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of Value Added Tax between July 2014 and August 2017.

Brian Treadwell, prosecuting, said Drury was the director and company secretary of Wrexham-based Drury Machine Sales, a company concerned with selling new and second hand card and box making machinery.

The court heard false accounts submitted over the course of three years showed the business had a turnover of £6million.

But this was "part of the subterfuge" which sustained Drury's VAT fraud, with Judge David Hale labelling the operation "a fiction."

Mr Treadwell said Drury completed a standard returns form and routinely submitted it to HMRC.

He made 31 consecutive applications seeking repayment, each one bigger than the last despite having made no sales.

"The defendant knew he was getting away with it," Mr Treadwell said.

"It was a matter of greed."

When the offences came to light, Drury was living in Spain.

HMRC requested to see his firm's paperwork and financial documents, but they were never supplied.

When it was made plain to him that no further payment would be made until he supplied the information, Drury Machine Sales "almost became a defunct business overnight."

He claimed the documents and records HMRC needed were stored on his laptop, but it was "stolen" at Alicante airport.

Mr Treadwell said following examination of his bank accounts, it was found he'd had common outgoings which had little to do with business expenses including bills at hotels, restaurants and personal items.

Robert James Edwards, defending, said: "This was not sophisticated. He exploited a loophole in the HMRC system.

"This day was always going to come. He was bound to be caught.

"Mr Drury accepts that all of this money, or a significant part of it, will have to be repaid."

Mr Edwards said his client also suffered with a number of health conditions - several of which relate to his heart.

Judge Hale told Drury: "You have pleaded guilty to stealing £1.89m from the public. That's what it comes down to.

"Month after month, for nearly three years, you applied for repayment from the VAT authorities.

"You got 31 payments back totalling £1.89m, which you treated as your own.

"You must have known the day would come when someone would think this cannot be right.

"Far too long after it started, they did.

"The cheque came every month, which you banked and spent.

"You bought a house in Spain, formed a Spanish company, you bought a house in Rossett.

"You were living the life of Riley for those three years knowing what would eventually happen."

Judge Hale jailed Drury for five-and-a-half years and disqualified him from being a company director for 10 years.

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