04-Mar-2011
Kishor Doshi, director of Sunderland accountancy and taxation firm Otax, is facing a custodial sentence after being found guilty of tipping off a client about a police investigation.
At Newcastle Crown Court the jury reached their verdict after two days of evidence, convicting Doshi of an offence under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. According to the Sunderland Echo Doshi admitted he rang and told a client that his office had received a police order commanding him to hand over the man’s accounts just hours after he discovered it.
The order relates to a money laundering investigation by Northumbria Police’s Economic Crime Unit - called Operation Galapagos - into the dealings of the client.
Doshi told the hearing at Newcastle’s Moot Hall that he did not know the Production Order related to a criminal investigation and was supposed to be kept secret by law. He claimed he thought it was part of an ongoing civil inquiry that his client had a right to know about.
The accountant of 23 years told the court he only read the first two paragraphs of the Production Order before he made the first in a series of phone calls. Sentencing has been adjourned until next month.