A judge, in response to a fraudster who cited anxiety and depression, remarked, “Naturally, you feel that way; living as a fraudster is inherently anxiety-inducing and depressing,” before sentencing him to prison.
Gareth Sowter, 51, alongside Kim Sowter, 46, despite facing bankruptcy, registered their four sons at the prestigious St Edmund’s College situated in Ware, Hertfordshire.
From 2012 onward, the couple, who have since divorced, failed to pay the tuition fees at the esteemed institution, where annual costs can escalate to £40,000.
They continuously misled the school’s accounts managers, who were seeking the overdue £106,000 by claiming they anticipated an imminent inheritance windfall.
Yet, when the inheritance of £208,166 was finally received in 2020, the duo still refused to settle their debt.
The case was brought before the Old Bailey in London, where Kim Sowter confessed to two counts of fraudulent property transfers, while her former husband admitted to eight such offenses.
The judge noted medical reports which said Gareth Sowter suffers from anxiety and depression – but dismissed them outright.
‘I do not wish to sound unsympathetic but of course you do. You have been living the life of a fraudster for years,’ Judge David Jeremy said.
Gareth Sowter, 51, and Kim Sowter, 46, enrolled all four of their sons at St Edmund’s College (pictured, file photo) in Ware, Hertfordshire
‘That is an anxiety making and depressing way to live you life. You have brought it all upon yourself.’
He was jailed for 26 months, with the judge telling him he used the money which should have gone to the school to ‘live beyond his means’.
But his ex-wife avoided prison after she was handed an eight-month sentence suspended for 18 months.
The court heard part of the cash the couple said would be used for paying their children’s school fees was instead spent on a holiday.
Gareth Sowter, who is a convicted VAT fraudster, also funneled some of the money to family, friends and even one of his teenage sons to protect it from his creditors.
And more than £15,000 of the total windfall was paid to the solicitors who acted for him in his VAT fraud case, a court heard.
He had previously carried out a £367,812 VAT fraud over the course of three years.
Sowter did so by inflating bills and forging bank statements to claim the money back from the taxman for a series of companies he ran.
In May 2021, he was given a suspended sentence of 24 months for these crimes.
But it would later emerge he had also been stashing the inheritance money away with family and friends just a month prior.
He gave £50,000 to his then-wife, who also sent £35,000 to a friend and £3,400 to her son to keep the cash out of the school’s hands.
Judge Jeremy told him: ‘You had been able to build up a large debt by fobbing off the school with stories of debts that had not been paid and assurances there were monies that were due to come to you.
‘When you were finally able to honour your word and pay the school what it was owed for educating your children you decided not to.
‘Instead you diverted the money to friends and associates in order to keep it to yourself.’
Sowter, from Ware, Hertfordshire, claimed his previous VAT fraud was ‘a poor decision’ – but the judge said: ‘It was not a poor decision.
‘It was a long-term choice made over years to live well beyond your means, because as the pre-sentence report on you says you have a deep sense of entitlement.
‘You also have a willingness to be dishonest to satisfy that sense of entitlement.
‘Your sense of entitlement meant you thought you had a right to the finer things in life, even if you could not afford them.’
Judge Jeremy said fee-paying schools are ‘a soft touch for unscrupulous parents’.
This is because, he explained, they operate on the basis of trust and are desperate not to expel children for non-payment of fees.
‘The victim is not just the school. It is all the honest hard working parents who often make huge sacrifices to send their children there alongside yours,’ the judge said.
Sowter claimed he was trying to protect his sons – but Judge Jeremy disagreed.
‘You did not protect your children but you gave them an education which has come from lies and fraud,’ he said.
‘The probation officer thought you only had remorse for yourself and so do I.’
Judge Jeremy said the pair’s offences was aggravated by the fact they used their own son as a vehicle for their fraud.
He told Kim Sowter: ‘You were used by your husband to commit these crimes at his direction but you knew what you were doing.
‘You knew the way the school was being fobbed off and you knew of the VAT fraud.’
Sowter, of Hertford, thanked the judge and shook uncontrollably in the dock as he suspended her sentence.
Chris Wood, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: ‘When someone is declared bankrupt, the law requires any money or assets they have to be used to repay what they owe, not to be given away to family and friends.
‘What makes this case particularly serious is that Gareth Sowter had promised the school he would use his inheritance to clear the debts and then did the precise opposite.
‘Kim Sowter compounded that dishonesty by moving on the money she received, even using some of it for family holidays.
‘Bankruptcy laws exist to ensure that creditors are treated fairly.
‘Anyone who abuses those protections by fraudulently transferring assets should expect to face serious consequences.’
