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£70,000 a year but no tax form
A DIRECTOR of a Sheffield centre accused of selling fake citizenship tests paid himself £70,000-a-year but failed to fill in a tax form, a court heard.
Mohammed Yousif, aged 33, said the directors of Broomhall-based City Wide Learning paid themselves "a lot of money" after the business took off in 2005.
But he told a Sheffield Crown Court jury he had not filled in a self-assessment tax form in that period.
He also admitted under-declaring his pay from CWL or declaring any income from a taxi business or two rental properties to Revenue and Customers in the same period.
Yousif and five others deny conspiring to defraud the UK Border Agency by sitting tests themselves and issuing fake certificates in return for payment
Daniel Jones, defending, said: "The prosecution say you have underdeclared your income trying to cover up money received as a result of this fraud."
Yousif replied: "We didn't fake any tests, we never received any money, we didn't have any idea whatsoever."
The court heard in 2006 70,000 was transferred from the CWL account to Yousif's personal account.
About 300-a-week would also go into his account from a two-car taxi business. Rental income from two properties – one of which was bought with 72,000 cash in 2006 – amounted to 1,400 a month which also went into his personal account, the court heard.
And rental income from his father-in-law's property in Sheffield would also go into his account every month before being transferred out.
Yousif, of Holywell Heights, Brightside, admitted he was "not good" at keeping track of his finances or careful to keep his business and personal accounts separate.
He added: "We paid ourselves a lot of money but at the same time we paid a lot of money to charity. CWL was a cash business, we always had a lot of cash around."
Yousif told the court he would send money to charities in Somalia – including 10,000 to a hospital – from his personal account because international transfer charges were lower than if he used the business account.
The trial continues.
See Saturday's Star for the latest on this story
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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