Former Ventura County Tax Consultant Pleads Not Guilty To Grand Theft And Embezzlement Charges

Wednesday January 18, 2023

     Updated--The former owner of a Thousand Oaks tax consulting firm has pleaded not guilty to grand theft and embezzlement charges.

     40-year-old Colin Patrick Doyle of Ventura was arraigned Wednesday and also denied nine special allegations.

    Detectives say that Doyle, used to own Doyle Tax Group.

    They say his clients hired Doyle to conduct various tax-related duties for their business including reporting and paying their payroll taxes.

     Investigators say in 2020 the alleged victims starting getting notices from the IRS saying they had not paid those taxes even though they had given the money to Doyle to forward to the IRS.

     When they tried to reach him, their calls went unanswered.

     They hired an independent tax company to research the issue and discovered that Doyle had allegedly never sent the money they sent to him to forward to the IRS.

     Instead, they allege he had kept the money for himself.

     Detectives say the alleged theft involved nearly $100,000.

     East County Sheriff's detectives investigated the case and presented it to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office who filed charges against Doyle and obtained an arrest warrant.

     He turned himself into the authorities on January 3rd and was booked and then released on bond.