A kebab shop owner attempted to blame his accountant when the tax man discovered he had failed to declare hundreds of thousands of pounds in income. Olcay Ozkaya's deliberate omission spanned three years and resulted in him keeping more than £20,000 due to HM Revenue and Customs.
But the "dedicated, hard working family man" was spared jail as a judge told him: "You made repeated assertions that were false. Clearly, there is a loss to revenue and consequences to the public purse, which relies on taxes being paid to provide the essential public services that we all rely upon."
Investigation and discrepancies
Liverpool Crown Court heard that Ozkaya ran Sultan's on Town Lane in Bebington, Wirral, and was the sole director of Arezzo Foods Ltd. The business came to HMRC's attention as part of a wider investigation of the Foodhub platform by retailers.
Jonathan Rogers, prosecuting, described how examination of Arezzo's turnover and banking records revealed discrepancies in amounts declared by Ozkaya for corporation tax. The 37-year-old was said to have been "fully aware" of inaccuracies, having filed the correct sum for a covid bounce back loan.
Instead, Ozkaya submitted a tax return for the year ending April 2021 where turnover was "significantly underdeclared". Over the next two years, he claimed the company was dormant when it was generating more than £150,000 in each period. This meant he failed to pay £22,341 in corporation tax between 2020 and 2023.
Blame and sentencing
When he instructed an accountant in autumn 2023, he claimed no access to the company's bank account and said the business had "stopped years ago", which Mr Rogers submitted was "clearly a lie". In interview in April 2024, Ozkaya asserted the figures were correct and "any errors would be their fault". He has no previous convictions.
Brendan O'Leary, defending, said his client had been referring to a second accountant "linked to similar offending with other people". He added: "The defendant accepts his guilt and accepts responsibility." He described Ozkaya as a "relatively unsophisticated man" who had taken advice from someone and continued to act on it despite knowing it was wrong.
Ozkaya admitted three counts of fraud and delivering false documents to a registrar. He was handed a two-year imprisonment suspended for two years with 200 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 10 days.
Sentencing, Judge Louise Brandon said: "Between April 2020 and April 2024, your company had a turnover in excess of £530,000. That did not include cash sales, so is likely an underestimate. You were well aware of the true turnover of the business."
She added: "You made repeated assertions to the revenue that were false. Clearly, there is a loss to revenue and consequences to the public purse." The judge noted Ozkaya began his pre-sentence interview by telling "what appears to be an elaborate lie" but accepted he is a hard working family man with no further offending.
