THE manager of an Indian restaurant in Ferndown has spoken of his fight to clear the eatery's debts after its former owner was jailed for tax fraud.

As reported in the Daily Echo, Motin Miah, of Dugdell Close in Ferndown, lied about the takings from his Joy restaurants in Charminster, Southbourne and Ferndown to evade paying £154,763 VAT over a five-year period.

The East Dorset restaurant was taken over by Tufayel Ahmed and his family in 2015 after Miah's deception came to light.

Since then, Mr Ahmed said the business has thrived.

"I took over the Ferndown branch in 2015 when I found out something was wrong with the business," he said.

"Now my uncle owns the restaurant and I manage it. There have been a lot of improvements to the restaurant in the past three years.

"Motin left a lot of debt and we have worked to clear that.

"We've also built up our own customer base and redesigned the menu and the pricing."

Miah first took on the Ferndown restaurant in 1998. It was then called Ferndown Spice.

Mr Ahmed, who has a six-year-old daughter, said: "Everything is different now.

"We run this business as a family. We have a lot of new customers, but we get lots of repeat business as well because people get to know us."

Miah, 42, was jailed for 32 months after an investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

As well as lying about his restaurants' takings, he evaded paying some £48,943 in income tax.

A judge at Bournemouth Crown Court heard the defendant never declared his income as being more than £7,800 a year. However, he is thought to have actually raked in at least £50,000 annually on his mortgage applications.

He also received income from properties he owned and rented out.

The total value of the fraud was £203,763.

Officers from HM Revenue & Customs were seen visiting the Southbourne restaurant in October 2015.

During interview, Miah lied by saying he was not the owner of the restaurants and did not know who the bosses were.

Fraud investigators at HMRC said Miah used the cash from his tax evasion to "build up a substantial property portfolio".

The defendant admitted cheating the public revenue on dates between April 1 2010 and October 13 2015 and evading income tax on dates between April 6 2007 and April 5 2015.

He was disqualified from being the director of a company for a decade.