Professional tax adviser David Perrin has been sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for trying to defraud taxpayers of £70m.

In January Perrin, deputy managing director at Vantis Tax Ltd, was found guilty of fraud when it was revealed he advised clients to avoid £70m worth of taxes by exploiting the benefits around giving gifts of company shares to charity.

Perrin was convicted of receiving a total of £2m from 600 clients who he advised to buy stocks in four companies set up and floated on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange by the 46-year-old. Perrin then inflated the stocks himself through share sales. The essentially worthless shares were then donated to charities in order to collect the gift aid.

"Mr Perrin deserves the immediate custodial sentence given to him,” commented Alison Maclennan, head of charities at law firm Stevens & Bolton LLP. “Using established charities in illegitimate tax evasion is potentially damaging to the charities, and the trust which is vested in charities by the public.

“Attempts to use charities in this way must be monitored and the sentence sends out a clear message that charities cannot be used as vehicles within such schemes."