FATHER and son butchers who cheated the taxman out of more than £250,000 have been castigated by a judge.

Business partners Joseph Maxted Higgens senior and Joseph Maxted Higgens junior were directors of a firm which owned franchises at Kwik Save and Somerfield supermarkets in Irlam, Ramsbottom and Bolton, as well as butchers in Northwich, Stafford and Congleton.

But in a five-year fraud, their employees were paid "top up wages", above the amounts shown on payroll records, Bolton Crown Court heard.

This sting, which took place from July 1995 to October 2001, led to less pay-as-you-earn tax and National Insurance contributions being paid to the Exchequer.

The father and son duo each pleaded guilty to an offence of cheating the public revenue at a court hearing in June and appeared for sentence last Friday.

Higgens junior, aged 35, of Durrell Way, Lowton, was given 240 hours community service and his 59-year-old father, of Tatton Drive, Ashton-in-Makerfield, was jailed for 15 months.

Passing sentence, Judge Elliott Knopf said the money obtained by the two could have been used to benefit society as a whole.

The judge warned others contemplating similar offences that they would face a similar penalty if convicted.

Investigators from Greater Manchester Police and the Inland Revenue's special compliance office in Manchester swooped on the pair in October 2001 following a joint inquiry.