John had never thought himself as a criminal. He had a good education, he’d worked hard. He had a job, a family, he paid his taxes. Well actually, he paid most of his taxes, and that’s where the problem lay.

Although John worked full-time in the IT department of a large investment bank, he’d always liked to earn a little on the side. Nothing illegal, nothing immoral, he hadn’t even billed that much. £100 here. £100 there.

Every year he paid tax on a £50,000 salary, he paid VAT on every purchase, he paid duty on every litre of fuel he pumped in to his heavily taxed car. He paid tax on every penny spent, and every penny saved.

He saw his part-time jobs; a website for a friend, fixing a laptop for a neighbour, some networking for an old colleague, as a way of making a few extra pounds to spend on himself.

The Inland Revenue didn’t agree. They contacted him in June 2008, they were going back 5 years; £12,000 of undeclared income. John thought he could just pay the tax, pay the fine. It’s never that simple.