Man who defrauded HMRC of £1.8m was Young Farmer of Year and guest on Countryfile

As revealed by The News on Friday, Jack Stilwell, of Green Lanes Farm, Forestside in Rowlands Castle, was jailed for two and a half years at Portsmouth Crown Court. The government said he “refused to play by the laws”, with his business not operating on a “level playing field”.

The 34-year-old, who recently admitted to having “dark thoughts” over struggles with his businesses, was caged after admitting three counts of furnishing false returns of VAT, which he admitted at a previous hearing. The offences took place between 1 November 2021 and 1 June 2022, and on 2 July 2022.

HMRC told this newspaper it carried out a probe into the farming entrepreneur and said his incarceration sends out a signal to others looking to ride roughshod over government laws.

A spokesperson for HMRC said: “Tax fraud is not a victimless crime. The tax we all pay helps to fund the public services we rely on. The majority pay the tax that is due, but a determined minority refuse to play by the rules.

“We are determined to create a level playing field to allow honest businesses to thrive and we encourage anyone with information about tax fraud or money laundering to report it online.”

Stilwell’s first offence included 20 false VAT statements on behalf of Roundstone Beef Ltd, totalling a whopping £1,278,277.13. The second conviction involved a single false VAT statement submitted on 2 July, 2022, for Greenwell Farms Ltd in which the defendant claimed £37,621.00.

The third charge related to eight false statements submitted on behalf of Greenwell Holdings Ltd, amounting to £568,345.66.

Stilwell’s fall from grace comes after the farming prodigy set up his own beef farming business using money from the public - via an industry-first crowdfunding campaign. In his final year of study at Harper Adams University in 2015 when he was just 23 he set up a crowdfunder to raise £4,000 to buy beef cattle and rent land.

It was a campaign that “caught the attention of the agricultural press and farmers across the world”, the university proudly declared on its website. “As a result, Jack was contacted by a new farm owner in the US who donated the full £4,000 and another in West Sussex who offered 600 acres of land as part of a share-farming project,” the university said.

“Since then, Jack’s business has grown to include over 200 Hereford and Aberdeen-Angus cattle, split across a number of sites. At the end of 2015, he was named Young Farmer of the Year at the Food and Farming Industry Awards. With his new company, Rural Media Solutions, Jack is working with other farmers and rural businesses to show them how social media and crowdfunding can improve their prospects.”

More recently Stilwell opened up on his own mental health struggles and turned to the public again for cash as he set about raising money for The Farm Safety Foundation, a charity set up by NFU Mutual to address attitudes to farm safety and poor mental health for young farmers under 40.

Writing on the Just Giving page, Stilwell confessed he was “struggling in myself for a long while and lost my way”. He gave his last update in February about his bid to run 500 miles in a year for the charity - when he had already pleaded guilty to VAT fraud and was awaiting sentence.

Stilwell added on the fundraising page: “As a farmer and business owner, I know the stresses and strains that starting and running an agricultural business can have on your body and mind.

“This can affect other areas of your life and relationships. Sometimes, you just feel on your own and your thoughts can get as dark as they come. If you, or someone you care for gets to that place, it’s really important to know that there is always someone there to help.”

Stilwell, who appeared on the BBC’s Countryfile program in 2016 and 2017, will be eligible for release on licence half way through his two and a half year sentence.