PR guru Richard Hillgrove given top billing in Channel 4 tax dodgers show
Fresh from his own run-in with HMRC PR guru Richard Hillgrove is to star in the opening episode of a new Channel 4 documentary which lifts a lid on the public servants tasked with bringing Britain’s tax dodgers to account.
PR guru Richard Hillgrove given top billing in Channel 4 tax dodgers show
Catching the Tax Dodgers will air on Monday 14 August at 22:00 with Hillgrove taking top billing following his own brush with the dreaded tax collection agency.
Five years ago Hillgrove and his wife Lois were unceremoniously yanked from their bed during a dawn raid on their Somerset home as a prelude to being locked in a police cell, swabbed for DNA and interrogated by officers.
Recalling the episode Hillgrove said: “If you live by the sword, I guess you have to expect to die by it, but I believe this experience makes me more qualified than ever now to manage people’s crisis communications.”
Hillgrove was subsequently charged with non-payment of a £100k tax bill, blaming the experience on the breakdown of his marriage, although he managed to avoid a jail term - being handed a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and a 200 hour community service order.