Photo: Stock Image
Written By: Robert L. McCullough
Ventura County, Ca. January 6, 2023 –- As if dealing with the IRS and conforming to that agency’s perpetually-shifting requirements imposed upon hapless taxpayers wasn’t enough, there are apparently among us those criminals so ruthless as to lure the unsuspecting into their web of deceit, all with the intent to defraud the citizenry.
Such appears to be the case surrounding the January 3 rd arrest of 40-year-old Colin Patrick Doyle, a resident of Ventura who has held himself out to the public as a tax professional operating as the Doyle Tax Group. According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Michael Melucci, attached to the VCSD East County Investigations Forgery-Fraud Unit, Doyle purported to “conduct a variety of tax-related duties” for local area business enterprises.
Among the functions Doyle agreed to perform for his clients—and for which he collected both fees and client deposits intended for forwarding to the Internal Revenue Service—was to professionally respond to “noticed from the IRS in reference to unpaid taxes.” After prolonged attempts by multiple victims to ascertain the performance of those duties went unanswered by Doyle, an independent tax company conducted research that showed Doyle had never forwarded client tax payments to the IRS. Instead, Doyle had purloined “nearly $100,000 from the victims which was never provided to the IRS.”
Pursuant to the investigation of these allegations, an arrest warrant was issued on December 28, 2022, whereupon Doyle surrendered himself and was taken into custody on January 3, 2023. He was transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was charged with grand theft, embezzlement, and theft by false pretenses, with his bail set at $100,000.
