Bartley Murphy, 53, stole more than £422,000 in tax after failing to declare that he built and sold 16 houses in the Racecourse Road area of Downpatrick for more than £1.8 million between 2007-2014.

He failed to put his tax affairs in order through HMRC’s Contractual Disclosure Facility (CDF), known as ‘COP9’.

As a result, HMRC began a criminal investigation in June 2014 and carried out searches at his home and business addresses, which proved he was illegally under-declaring the true scale of his income.

Steve Tracey, assistant director in the Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: “While Murphy, and his family, enjoyed the income from his businesses he failed to pay the tax due which deprived public services of vital funding and gave him an unfair advantage over his honest competitors.

“He was offered the opportunity to put his tax affairs in order through the Contractual Disclosure Facility. Instead he made a conscious decision to make only a partial disclosure of the tax offences he had committed. He could have been spared a criminal conviction had he fully cooperated with HMRC.”

Murphy pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges on Friday 23 March 2018 at Downpatrick Crown Court and was sentenced yesterday.

He paid a compensation order for £422,142 to HMRC as restitution for the stolen tax and was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment, suspended for three years, at Antrim Crown Court. He also received a £15,000 fine which he has been given 26 weeks to pay.