Aleksandr Gebski, 55, is the final person to be sentenced as part of an HMRC investigation into 17 tradesmen, including welders, sheet metal workers and electricians from the East Midlands, who between them pocketed £643,000 of taxpayers’ money.

The fraud came to light when HMRC identified a trend in the financial accounting of local tradesmen.

They all worked for a company on a self-employed basis and were paid monthly, but failed to register with HMRC for Self Assessment, instead keeping the money they should have handed over in Income Tax and National Insurance.

The company was not implicated in the fraud.

Brett Wilkinson, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: “This was a group of individuals who decided to keep taxpayers’ money that should have been funding vital public services.

“As self-employed traders in the construction industry, they believed it was a quick way to make easy cash, with little risk of getting caught – but they couldn’t have been more wrong.

“This last prosecution brings to an end a scam extending across the Leicestershire area and shows HMRC is levelling the playing field for honest tradesmen.

“The sentences passed down should be a warning to anyone thinking about committing tax fraud – it’s a criminal offence and we won’t hesitate to use our full range of powers to ensure that nobody is beyond the law.

Gebski pleaded guilty at the start of his trial at Leicester Crown Court and was sentenced to 21 months in prison, suspended for two years.

All 17 tradesmen have been prosecuted under the Project Dobbin investigation and many pleaded guilty last year, receiving a mixture of immediate custodial sentences, suspended prison terms or being ordered to carry out hundreds of hours of unpaid work.