The owner of an award-winning Valleys fish and chip shop has been banned from acting as a company director for five years after failing to declare nearly £460,000 of tax.
An investigation carried out by HMRC revealed that Mathew Williams, director of MAW Catering Services Limited, which traded as The Crispy Cod in Tonyrefail, failed to pay £459,522 in VAT. It took place over a five year period from January 2012 to July 2017, and it was said Mr Williams failed to submit correct VAT returns.
The chip shop had previously been crowned the best chippy in Wales at the National Fish and Chip Awards. When it scooped the gong in 2019 it was the third time it had won the prize for best in Wales, and the third time the business had been in the UK top 10 in the competition.
You can read about Mr Williams' story leaving school with one GCSE to working with Michelin-starred chefs and running two fish and chip shop branches in Tonyrefail and Gelli here.
Read more: The definitive guide to eating in the Valleys
It's reported MAW was registered for VAT from April 14, 2008 and submitted returns for all quarters up to April 2019. Later, during July 2019, the takeaway closed and went into liquidation on July 31.
Even though the Tonyrefail shop closed a few years back a branch remains open in Gelli.
Back in April 2017, the Tonyrefail premises was visited by HMRC officials who took copies of sales records of a four month period from the shop’s Point of Sale register (PoS), but the system failed to show if sales were for hot or cold food. Due to this HMRC concluded that the output VAT had been under-declared by £2,000 a week.
As a result it was later discovered the total amount of under-declared came to £459,522, and MAW was informed about this assessment during December 2017. On July 20 of this year a five-year disqualification order was issued, which prevents Mr Williams from being a company director until 2026.
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Mr Williams said: "I’m absolutely devastated. All I’ve ever tried to do is work hard for myself and my family. I just bit off more than I could chew and I’m sorry for that.
"I’ve lost the shop in Tonyrefail that I worked 15 years giving a lot of blood, sweat and tears to, and I started with very little. I left school with no GCSEs I tried to build a life for myself and my family, all I was trying to do was grow my business. I’m just a chef at the end of the day. I haven’t come out of this a millionaire.
"I work hard and just tried to grow my business and now I’ve paid the price for the mistakes I’ve made. I just hope people understand that. I just made a mistake, like millions do every day in the world."
Earlier this year the team at The Crispy Cod confirmed they were also preparing for big and exciting plans, as Pontyclun pub The Bute had been snapped up by Mr Williams.
At first his vision was to turn the village pub into another fish and chip shop but, a few months back, it was announced The Crispy Cod family would be going in a different direction and launching a fresh fish and seafood restaurant and fishmongers called The Rock & Scallop.
Mr Williams said The Rock & Scallop is still going ahead.
