by Dan Bloom

A husband and wife stole almost £100,000 from taxpayers through their jewellery firm - then bought a holiday home in Portugal.

A court heard Darron Terry was "no diamond geezer" after he ran rings round banks and the taxman for five years.

The 45-year-old, pictured left, launched Rings for Life in 2002 with his wife Louisa, 35, and moved to Walderslade Centre, in Walderslade Road, where he made custom wedding rings.

But prosecutor Tom Allen said he failed to declare profits since 2003 - cheating taxpayers out of almost £40,000 in tax credits as well as £56,000 in income tax and national insurance.

He then produced "entirely fictitious" documents inflating the firm's income to get £500,000 in mortgages for two homes.

Now Darron Terry has been jailed for two-and-a-half years and his wife, who admitted tax evasion and false accounting, given a 12-month sentence suspended for two years and 200 hours' unpaid work.

The couple, of Sussex Drive, Walderslade, claimed their earnings were just £5,000 a year - the amount Louisa Terry (pictured top and below) was paid as a health worker.

At the same time, they were using the money to buy three properties, including a holiday apartment in Portugal.

Investigators swooped in 2008 and Darron Terry admitted seven charges of tax evasion, fraudulently claiming tax credits and mortgage fraud.

Judge Simon James told them at Canterbury Crown Court: "In my judgement you both quite deliberately pursued a course of dishonesty, motivated out of greed and designed to enable your family to sustain a lifestyle well beyond your means.

"The vast majority of small businesses are - in the current economic climate - struggling to make ends meet. You, over a five year period, milked the system in order to line your own pockets."

Simon De Kayne, from HM Revenue and Customs, said: "Tax fraud is not a victimless crime. It deprives the nation of funds needed for vital public services."

Confiscation proceedings are underway.