Crown in bid to recover cash from tattie merchant tax cheat

Scott Coupland, who also worked as a retained firefighter, was jailed for two years and six months in February for carrying out the VAT fraud.

Coupland, 48, was found guilty after coming under suspicion from HMRC when he told the taxman that he had sold more than £2 million worth of potatoes in less than two months.

HMRC launched an investigation and raided Coupland’s home in a bid to see the company’s records but Coupland repeatedly dodged meeting investigators.

The court was told the merchant cancelled several interviews at the last minute, including one occasion he was unable to meet the tax inspectors because he had been stranded on a business trip to sell seed potatoes in Nigeria.

However, authorities finally discovered that Coupland had made false VAT repayment claims to dupe the taxman out of £124,000 between March 2011 and June 2012.

He was caught when he tried to defraud HMRC of a further £37,000 between June and November 2012.

He was convicted by jury at of the large-scale tax evasion after a four-day trial.

At the time, Sheriff William Wood said Coupland had made no attempt to pay back the money and had to go to jail despite his previous good character and service to the community.