A FRAUDSTER who conned the taxman out of £190,000 spent the cash on luxury holidays and drugs, a court was told.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that Richard Cusick, of Reidvale Street, went on a two-year spending spree using VAT repayments made to his phoney company by HMRC.

The court also heard the 31-year-old, the former Director of Discount Business Utilities Ltd, created an alias to try and avoid the taxman when they first investigated him.

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Prosecutor Derek Buchanan said: “Mr Cusick told investigators that he had used the money obtained from HMRC in VAT repayments to fund his lifestyle of drugs, holidays and providing finance to family members.

“He said he was a drug addict, but had been clean for three months.”

Cusick created the company in February 2015 and registered for VAT in June once the turnover threshold ranged between £82,000 and £85,000.

Cusick's false sums were submitted electronically and originally accepted by HMRC, but he now admits that these were untrue.

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The estimated total of false invoices resulted in an average of £7,916 per month being returned to Cusick between August 1, 2015 and July, 31, 2017.

HMRC Investigator Pamela Hill discovered that in December 2016, Cusick resigned from the company and Robert Gallagher took his place.

Cusick told Miss Hill that he had been made bankrupt from his previous company Discount Business Water between 2013 and 2014 as he hadn’t paid income tax.

Sheriff Joseph Platt told Cusick that custody is unavoidable and deferred sentence until the end of the month.

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