HMRC officials faced with death threats by chartered accountant
The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has handed one of its members, Run Chai Pan, a significant fine for routinely intimidating HMRC officials over an 18 month period.
HMRC staff were threatened with violence by the chartered accountant who also intimated that tax inspectors could be terminated. Run Chai Pan was repeatedly aggressive during telephone conversations and told a female official that it was his intention to give one of her colleague’s a “hammering” at a future meeting and would give her a “good punching”. Another Revenue officer was warned that he would have been murdered if he had set foot on Run Chai Pan’s property and that inspectors would be stabbed to death if they visited his Chinese takeaway clients after the hours of 9 p.m.
An ICAEW disciplinary committee found their member guilty and handed Pan a fine of £7,500 which Pan appealed against. In his defence Pan argued that Revenue officials had lied about the threats. He also suggested that HMRC witnesses had “engaged in a conspiracy to defame” him due to his success in challenging tax assessments or because they held a prejudice against Chinese people. Such a suggestion was dismissed as “fanciful” by the panel.
Pan also told the panel that he had been ill during the original disciplinary hearing and claimed that HMRC’s complaints were out of time, the sentence was too severe and the costs he was ordered to pay excessive. This however fell on deaf ears as the panel upheld the disciplinary committee’s admonition and ordered Pan to pay costs of over £38,000, although the original fine was reduced to £5,000. Pan was also told that he had been fortunate not to have been banned from the ICAEW.
Following the handing down of the panel’s judgement, a HMRC spokesperson said, “We are committed to treating those we serve with consideration and respect. Similarly, our people are entitled to go about their duties free from the threat of physical assault or verbal intimidation so we very much welcome the clear message the ICAEW has sent about the importance of professional behaviour.”
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