Fines slashed for Darwen taxi firm mother and son
http://www.blackburncitizen.co.uk/news/ ... r_and_son/
A DARWEN mother and son who ran a taxi firm have had their fines for cheating the taxman dramatically reduced by top judges on appeal.
Norma Astley, 65, and her son Nicholas Astley, 43, received respective suspended sentences of nine months and six months, and were hit with financial penalties totalling around £260,000 – including costs bills, fines and confiscation orders.
Norma Astley, the proprietor of a Bolton-based cab firm which her son managed day-to-day, was convicted of 18 counts of cheating the Revenue at Liverpool Crown Court in February last year, while her son pleaded guilty to two similar counts at an earlier hearing.
The two were sentenced in September last year and Judge David Harris imposed the swingeing financial penalties the following month.
Norma Astley was hit with a £50,000 fine, along with a confiscation order of £70,000 and a prosecution costs bill of £15,000.
Her son was ordered to pay £5,000 towards prose-cution costs, fined £75,000, and given a confiscation order of £45,000.
Mr Justice Openshaw, sitting with Judge Peter Rook QC, told London's Criminal Appeal Court that the cab firm run by the duo was a “substantial business”, with 200 drivers on its books in 2005.
Their offences involved submitting bogus accounts to the Inland Revenue.
After her conviction, Norma Astley feared that her operating licence would be withdrawn by the local authority, but it was never revoked and she continued running the cab firm through her son until her retirement, the court heard.
Before the mother and son, of Bury Fold Lane, Darwen, were sentenced in September 2008, nearly 200 local cabbies presented the trial judge with a petition calling for mercy in their case.
Mr Justice Openshaw reduced Norma Astley’s fine from £50,000 to £25,000, and her son’s from £75,000 to £35,000, after concluding that the original amounts were “excessive”.
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