A bookkeeper has pleaded not guilty to defrauding a Dartmouth company out of £20,000 by failing to pass on scheduled tax payments to HMRC.

Darren Moysey is alleged to have taken the money from Karen and Stephen Westwood who run Exclusive Holiday Homes Management at a time when he was acting as their accountant.

Moysey, aged 51, of Barton Avenue, Paignton, denied a fraud which is alleged to have lasted from 2013 and 2019 and in which he ‘failed to make the required tax payments and retained the money himself’.

Judge Timothy Rose adjourned the case at Exeter Crown Court for a trial next year and released Moysey on bail.