Dragons Den PR guru, Richard Hillgrove, who has represented the television programme's stars James Caan, Duncan Bannatyne and Simon Woodroffe, may sue HMRC for wrongful arrest. Mr Hillgrove is also considering suing his former accountants for their part in him being subjected to a Revenue dawn raid at his property in Somerton, Somerset.
At 6 a.m on 12th June of this year, Mr Hillgrove and his wife were visited by four bullet-proof wearing HMRC officers from Bristol. They were then taken to Taunton whereupon they were placed in a cell and charged with initial offences that included Money Laundering which were later dropped.
Mr Hillgrove told Business Matters magazine, “They stormed the house, pulled my wife out of bed and told her 80 year old grandfather, who lives in an adjoining annex to take charge of our sick 20 month old daughter Lola who had early stage Chicken Pox, otherwise she would be given to Social Services”.
It is claimed by Hillgrove that during the raid he was subjected to constant mocking by HMRC officers about his trademark cowboy hat which they had seen him wearing on television news reports.
The PR executive, who is a managing director of Hillgrove PR, is set to face a preliminary hearing on criminal charges of cheating the public revenue of £100,000 at Taunton Crown Court this Friday, after the original hearing scheduled for 17th September was put back at the request of Mr Hillgrove's solicitor. It is a charge that Hillgrove strongly denies. All charges against his wife, Lois, have been dropped.
Hillgrove believes that the charge was a “face-saving exercise” on the part of HMRC as he said that their officers who questioned him were ignorant of a time to pay arrangement that he had in place and that almost £70,000 had been paid on account of tax arrears.
According to Mr Hillgrove it had been necessary to seek time to pay VAT and income tax after a key client went bust owing his business £50,000 and, by so doing, exerted a lot of pressure on cashflow.
Speaking to Business Matters, Hillgrove said, “The HMRC are looking for a trophy kill as their targets for criminal prosecutions have increased five-fold recently. The Gestapo like arrest is more akin to countries without democracies and something you'd expect to be done to drug smugglers not normal upstanding citizens. If someone is late filing or paying it is a civil matter and could have been dealt with an initial chat.”
Likening himself to Harry Redknapp, Mr Hillgrove proclaimed his excellence in his field but not so proficient in the financial side of his business and entrusted all responsibility for his financial affairs to a firm of local accountants. He claims that the accountancy firm “botched” up his affairs in spectacular fashion and, in an act of self preservation, did not provide a full disclosure of documents which exacerbated the situation. He has since dispensed with their services.
Defending himself, Hillgrove maintained that he is not a tax avoider nor involved in any “clever schemes” and had always intended to pay off the outstanding tax.
Mr Hillgrove claims that an internal police source has advised him and his legal representatives that he has a very strong case for proceeding with a case against HMRC for wrongful arrest.
HMRC has declined to comment as it said it does not do so in individual cases.
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