The owner of a chain of Belfast hair salons is the first person to be jailed in Northern Ireland for tax fraud for more than 30 years.

Michael McGuigan, 47, former managing director of Zakks and Nagoya salons, was jailed for two and a half years for defrauding the Inland Revenue and VAT authorities of nearly £1m.

McGuigan, from Lockview Road, Belfast, had pleaded guilty to 38 counts of making false statements and furnishing false VAT returns.

Second set of records

He was said to have become involved in the apparently general practice of paying top stylists hefty commissions on top of their regular salaries, without deduction of PAYE or National Insurance.

To cover this a second set of records was kept in relation to the firm's takings, resulting in an underpayment of VAT.

The total amount lost to the public revenue was £984,849 over a five year period up to 1997.

Judge Anthony Hart told McGuigan on Friday that the sentence passed on him was significantly less than it would otherwise have been because of the very high degree of co-operation he had given to the authorities.

Belfast Crown court had heard that McGuigan had retained an accountant to identify the irregularities which had arisen, and this had formed the basis of the prosecution case.