* UPDATE July 2017: The multinational Carlsberg has bought the Hackney brewery for a reported £1 million. The tax office, however, wants Jules Wilkinson and his wife to answer old allegations of tax fraud (see background story below), which the couple continue to deny. They are due to appear in court again on Monday 10 July 2017

THE REVENUE’S ATTEMPT to retrieve almost £1 million owed to it by London Fields Brewery has hit another setback.

Julian de Vere Whiteway-Wilkinson, 43, c0-founder of the Hackney brewery, and his wife, Rosemary Spence, were charged at Wood Green Crown Court with having deliberately failed to pay £730,000 that Revenue and Customs said it was owed from his business over a three-year period. The revenue added that beer duties and corporation tax also “went unpaid”. The couple deny the charges.

The latest in a series of postponements stems from public school-educated “Jules” Whiteway’s camp: his defence barrister is ill.

The likelihood of the case’s taking longer than expected prompted three jurors to ask to be stood down because they had commitments elsewhere, which would have left only nine jurors. So the judge postponed the trial to July 2017.

The brewery was started in 2011 with Ian Burgess, owner of the hipster-coffee pioneer shop Climpson and Sons in nearby Broadway Market. But he quit the partnership within months.

David Altheer 260117

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