Suspended sentences for tax cheats

Boston manager Steve Evans and former chairman Patrick Malkinson have escaped jail after cheating the taxman out of hundreds of thousands of pounds to ``prop up'' their ailing club.

Evans, 43, who wept with relief when he was told he was free to leave the dock, and Malkinson, 65, were each given suspended sentences of 15 months and two years respectively because of what the judge described as ``exceptional circumstances''.

London's Southwark Crown Court heard the pair spent years carefully disguising wages, fees and bonuses as expenses, a scheme so successful it transformed the Lincolnshire club's fortunes.

The Pilgrims not only went from employing part-time players to full-time ones, but enjoyed promotion through the leagues and saw gates soar by a massive 1,000%.

By the end of the five-year plot the public revenue was more than #323,000 the poorer once interest had been taken into account.

Evans and Malkinson each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to cheat the public revenue between April 5 1997 and June 1 2002.