A BARBER who tried to get out of paying more than £4,000 in business rates has been spared jail - because he was recently the victim of armed robbers.

Yigit Ceyhan, 27, forged a tenancy agreement to make it look as if his landlady, not he, was responsible for paying the rates for his barber’s shop Cut Fellas on Clifton Green, said Thomas Stanway, prosecuting.

But he put the wrong signature and the wrong phone number on the false document.

Louise Reevell, mitigating, told York Crown Court three men robbed Ceyhan at knifepoint of £2,600 at Cut Fellas in late February.

Ceyhan, of Boroughbridge Road, Acomb, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by submitting a fake document to a City of York Council investigator.

The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, said usually people who perverted justice and landed an innocent person such as the landlady in trouble went to prison.

But he suspended Ceyhan eight-month prison sentence for two years on condition he does 250 hours’ unpaid work. He must also pay £1,382 prosecution costs.

“I have particular regard to what happened to you in the recent past when you were the victim of a serious armed robbery,” he told Ceyhan. “There is, in my judgement, sufficient material here to persuade me to take such a course.”

He also took into account Ceyhan’s guilty plea and his lack of previous convictions.

Mr Stanway said only people who owned a single small business could claim small business rate relief.

Ceyhan had a fish and chip shop in Burtonstone Lane, Clifton, in addition to his hairdressing business.

Ceyhan used the fake agreement to try and get out of £4,097 business rates for the period between October 10, 2013, and August 30, 2017 for the fish and chip shop.

Mrs Reevell said Ceyhan was now up to date with his business rates and everything was “above board” with the building where he ran Cut Fellas. The forgery was out of character.

City of York Council leader Ian Gillies said such crime "reduces funding available for public services and all who live and work in the city".

Police are continuing to hunt the robbers.