A fisherman scammed taxpayers out of £40,000 by failing to declare his earnings for almost ten years.

David McHale, 55, was charged with setting up a fraudulent scheme after it emerged he had avoided paying income tax and national insurance contributions between 2005 and 2014.

Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard McHale was living at a flat on King Street in Peterhead and working in Aberdeenshire at the time the crimes were committed.

Fiscal depute Alan Townsend told the court on Tuesday that fishermen classed as self-employed shared the profits of a fishing boat and were registered in a share scheme with the HMRC.

Investigating officers were able to check a fishing industry database and discovered that McHale, of Newport, Fife, had failed to register his earnings.

McHale pled guilty to forming a fraudulent scheme to evade the payment of £13,089 of national insurance contributions between April 2005 and April 2014.

He also admitted two separate charges of being involved in a fraudulent evasion of a total of £30,744 of income tax committed between the same dates.

Sheriff Andrew Miller deferred sentence for reports until November.