Jury hears of ‘lax procedures’

LAX Town Hall procedures allowed a tax official to falsify records as part of a £20,000 business rates scam, a jury has heard.
Rates inspector Neil Messer, 40, is accused of siphoning off Camden Council rates with accomplice Jason Procter, 36, in 2002.
Southwark Crown Court heard that Messer got Procter to offer firms a cut in their rates in return for a 25 per cent cut of the saving.
Businesses were recorded as being shut for renovation or repair in order to qualify a 50 per cent discount, even though, in reality, they were open, it is claimed.
Yesterday (Wednesday) Messer admitted under questioning that he had amended companies’ tax details on the council’s computer system – a job which should have been done by accountants, not inspectors, under audit rules – for 13 years.
He argued that a heavy workload meant he often had to do the job nonetheless. Prosecutor Anthony Haycroft alleged that Messer had written notes on the businesses’ files, intending to show that he had inspected them to ensure that they had been shut, when in fact he had not.
He added that Procter, a school friend of his brother-in-law who claims to be a legitimate agent working on behalf of the businesses, had told him about the closures and that he had taken him at his word.
He had “driven past” one of the businesses to check that work had been done, he said, adding that the decision to accept Proter’s word had been “at my discretion”.
He denied having an improper relationship with Procter, with whom phone records show he had at least 123 phone conversations.
He admits meeting Procter at a bus station to collect documents but says he extended the same favours to other agents. Both Messer, of Hemel Hempstead and Procter, of Maida Vale, deny conspiracy to defraud at Southwark Crown Court.
The trial continues.