A market trader from Devon has been jailed for stealing more than £900,000 in VAT repayments to fund a gambling addiction.

Terence Sickelmore from Honiton submitted dozens of fake VAT returns for his business to fraudulently claim repayments of £913,729, an HMRC investigation found.

Mr Sickelmore was a co-owner of Dairy World, a dairy products business in Exmouth Market. From October 2010 to August 2018, he used the company accounts to create 95 bogus VAT returns.

He was caught when HMRC reviewed his VAT returns and identified irregularities. He immediately admitted to submitting the bogus claims to fund his...