A HAULIER jailed for evading VAT and fuel duty totalling more than £93,000 has been ordered to pay the money to Customs and Excise.

Stewart Young, 37, who owned S Young Transport, of Esh Winning, County Durham, was jailed for a year at Durham Crown Court in April.

Yesterday the court issued a confiscation order so that Customs and Excise can recover the unpaid tax.

The court heard that Young, who has completed his sentence, was declared bankrupt in April.

Judge Richard Lowden ordered that £53,459 be paid from two bank accounts and the remainder of the £93,358 be recovered from the sale of an industrial unit at Esh Winning that Young owned.

Customs and Excise will have to apply to the High Court for the release of the bank account money, because it is frozen.

In April, Young, of Pine Villas, Esh Winning, admitted evading VAT and fuel duty between 1994 and 1996.

The court was told he declared fewer than half the transactions for work his firm carried out and that he bought illicit diesel for £1 a gallon.

The offences were discovered when tax officers carried out a spot check of his books in November 1996.

The court also heard that Young, who had seven vehicles and ten drivers, committed the offences to keep his business on the road, intending to put matters right later.