A businessman has been jailed for two years for failing to declare and pay tax on income he received from his multi-million pound property portfolio.

An HM Revenue and Customs investigation revealed that sports agent Mazhar Majeed had intentionally under-declared income from his property development and rental businesses by £259,000, in an attempt to avoid paying tax.

“Majeed was a very wealthy businessman who tried to wriggle out of paying his fair share” says Alan Tully, assistant director of HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC. 

HMRC officers began their criminal investigation in June 2010 and uncovered documents which revealed that between 2006 and 2011, Majeed had not declared all of the income obtained from properties on his tax returns, resulting in the tax evasion.

Majeed was arrested by HMRC on 29 August 2010 and pleaded guilty to tax fraud at Croydon Crown Court last week.