HMRC targets businesses across UK as part of till fraud probe

More than 20 takeaways and restaurants in Edinburgh London St Helens and Stoke have been subject to unannounced visits from HMRC as part of a crackdown on electronic till fraud.

The action by HMRC officers took place over the last four weeks with 24 hot food takeaways and restaurants targeted. The visits coincided with the launch of criminal investigations by HMRC’s fraud investigation service which is conducting three interviews under caution this month with individuals from Stoke and St Helens.

HMRC says a ‘small minority of takeaways and restaurants in the UK are using electronic sales suppression (ESS) tools which are software or devices that alter electronic point-of-sale records. They are used to underreport a business’s sales and consequently evade tax’.

HMRC encourages anyone using making supplying or promoting ESS to notify this using its a voluntary disclosure facility....