A CONSTRUCTION company has been hit with fines of more than £24,000 after HMRC brought them to court for a ‘blatant and deliberate disregard’ for tax payments.

AJR Construction and Civils Ltd, of Marlborough Road, along with director and sole owner of the company Anthony Reape, faced 10 charges apiece of illegally supplying goods and services, after failing to pay £30,000 as security for VAT payments.

HMRC officers had served Reape with a notice to make the security payment in December 2012 after debts for non-payment of tax from his previous company gave rise to concerns.

The 35-year-old, of Fitkin Court, pleaded guilty to 20 charges in total, divided equally between himself and the company, at court yesterday.

Pauline Lambert, prosecuting, told the court the charges had been brought by tax officers after extensive communication between the parties came to nothing. The charges relate to taxable supplies of goods or services which have been made in contravention of notice of requirement for payment of security,” she said.

“HMRC can ask employers and traders to pay security where they can see a serious risk they won’t pay taxes.”

Despite the 2012 notice, Reape, to this date, had not paid up, despite the company continuing to trade.

“The business continued to trade since that date,” said Ms Lambert.

She added: “The offences are aggravated by by the numerous communications with HMRC as to their obligations.

“There has been a blatant and deliberate disregard along with a history of non-compliance.

“There was a previous company that Mr Reape had which had difficulties with HMRC, who saw the new company as a continuance of that one, which had a history of debt and poor compliance.

“They asked for this security in the form of a bond to ensure payments were made.”

Reape, who appeared unrepresented at the hearing, told the court it had always been his intention to pay the security bond of £30,650, but cash flow problems meant it had been impossible at the early stages of the fledgling company.

The company, which has turnover of around £750,000 a year, has acquired further VAT debt which will need to be paid.

“It was my intention to make this payment, and it still is my intention’’, he said.

Both Reape and the company itself were made to pay a total of £12,417.65 each, including fines, costs and compensation for a total of £24,835.30.