A crooked mortgage broker from Hillingdon who lied about his profits to evade almost £115,000 in tax has dodged jail, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) said.

Asim Hussain, of Long Lane, Hillingdon, was given a two-year suspended jail sentence on Friday (July 31) at Southwark Crown Court for his part in tax and mortgage fraud.

HMRC and the Metropolitan Police Service found that the 42-year-old defendant, who was director of Lifestyle Mortgages (Middlesex) Ltd, had diverted company income into other bank accounts to reduce the profits of his company and pay less corporation tax.

Hussain then spent the money to finance a property in Dubai, overpay on his mortgage and buy land as an investment, HMRC said.

Gary Forbes, assistant director of criminal Investigation at HMRC, said: “Hussain seemed to believe he could act above the law and that by simply moving money between bank accounts he would stay off HMRC’s radar.

“Instead, he has learned the hard way that crime does not pay - he now has a criminal record and his reputation and career are in tatters.

“What Hussain did was illegal and immoral – he used the money that should have gone back into funding some of the UK’s most vital public services to invest in his property and enjoy a lifestyle most honest taxpayers can only dream of.”

The Met's DC Philip Palmer said the sentencing was the result of a coordinated approach by the police, HMRC and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and should send a strong message to the financial and banking community that fraud and cheating will not go unpunished.

He added: “Every penny that Hussain evaded increased the tax burden on law-abiding citizens and deprived government revenue.”

The FCA’s predecessor, the Financial Services Authority, became suspicious of Hussain when a lender highlighted its concerns regarding discrepancies in relation to mortgage applications submitted by him, which were based on false and misleading information, HMRC said. He was trading at the time as Lifestyle Mortgages and was based in Finchley and then later South Road, in Southall.

He was found guilty of falsifying mortgage applicants’ income and employment details and, at a separate hearing, admitted cheating HMRC.

HMRC are pursuing the £115,000 of Corporation Tax owed. Confiscation proceedings have started to recover criminal profits.