DORSET businessman Stuart Price has been charged with VAT fraud linked to the building trade and estimated at £1.3million.

HM Revenue and Customs said yesterday that Stuart Cleveland Price, 48, had been charged at Bournemouth Police Station on September 27, following an investigation.

He faces charges of cheating the public revenue.

HMRC criminal investigators arrested Price at a residential property in Dorset on June 21 last year on suspicion of VAT fraud and money laundering.

Price, of Dewlands Common, Verwood, has been released on bail until October 15, when he is due to appear at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court. Investigations are ongoing.