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Director sentenced to three years for tax fraud

Director sentenced to three years for tax fraud

A director who worked with Daryl Hannah and David Carradine has been sentenced to three years behind bars after he was convicted of tax fraud.

Richard Driscoll was found guilty of swindling £1.5 million in tax refunds from authorities by falsifying invoices for the costs of making his horror comedy Eldorado in order to reclaim Value Added Tax (VAT) that he was not entitled to.

The scam included a fake bill suggesting Kill Bill star Carradine was paid more than £400,000 for 13 days worth of work, even though he had died two weeks prior to the 2009 date stamped on the notice, while the paperwork also falsely suggested Hannah was paid £570,000 for seven days' filming in Cornwall, where Driscoll's film studio is based, even though the American star had not even left the US.

Driscoll was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud VAT at London's Southwark Crown Court last month and he returned for sentencing on Monday.

Handing down the jail time, the judge said, "In my opinion this was professionally planned. You used your filming expertise for the content of bogus and false invoices."

Eldorado, which also featured Michael Madsen and actor Rik Mayall, was Carradine's last movie appearance before he passed away in June, 2009. The movie never received a theatrical release.