Charles Brown of MB Tax Solutions in £400,000 tax evasion

According to the prosecution, company director Charles Michael Anthony Brown, 58, didn't pay income tax, national insurance, corporation tax and national insurance to the Government over a five-year period.

He told the tax authorities his company MB Tax Solutions Ltd of Hirst Courtney, near Selby, was dormant, and therefore wasn’t liable to pay taxes.

His barrister Nick Worsley said the £400,000 figure may be adjusted to take into account tax allowances.

Recorder Tahir Khan KC told Brown: “You have pleaded guilty to offences which are serious, and which would justify a custodial sentence. Just because I am adjourning and asking for a pre-sentence report should not be taken by you as any indication that this won’t be a custodial sentence.”

Brown, of Main Street, Hirst Courtney near Selby, pleaded guilty to three charges of tax fraud, one each for VAT, National Insurance and income tax, and one offence of cheating the public revenue over corporation tax.

The offences were committed between July 2013 and April 2018, York Crown Court heard.

• Read about North Yorkshire firms named and shamed by the taxman for tax evasion here

He was released on unconditional bail. He will return to York Crown Court to be sentenced on March 24.

According to Companies House, Brown is the only director of the company.