A man extradited from Australia to face tax charges totalling more than $240,000 was today sentenced to two years and four months imprisonment in the Auckland District Court.

Christopher Goldsmith had earlier pleaded guilty to 69 charges of filing false GST returns.

He was arrested in August 2006 and fled to Australia in September that year while on bail.

Following a joint investigation with the Australian Tax Office, Goldsmith was arrested in Melbourne in August 2007 and extradited back to New Zealand.

Investigations Manager Richard Philp said this case demonstrated that tax fraudsters could not avoid their punishment simply by leaving the country after committing their crime.

“We work closely with our colleagues at the Australian Tax Office to ensure that fraudsters can be caught and punished, even when they leave New Zealand.”

Mr Goldsmith incorporated 11 companies, 10 of which used the identities of other people as directors and shareholders without their knowledge. All these companies claimed GST refunds totalling $243,026.

Mr Philp said that aggravating factors in the case were the high level of premeditation, the sophistication of the operation, the use of innocent peoples’ identities, and the repetitive nature of the fraud.

Source: Inland Revenue Media Release

A second finance company owned by former Capital + Merchant chief executive Owen Tallentire, Numeria Finance, was yesterday placed in receivership owing 480 debenture investors $6.4 million and becoming the 13th failure in the sector over the past two years.

Numeria’s trustee Perpetual Trust said that while the company was associated with Capital + Merchant, its receivership was unrelated, and had been caused by “insufficient cashflows which have put the company in breach of its trust deed”.

Read the full article online >>> NZ Herald – nzherald.co.nz

A Rotorua mother is accused of being Bay of Plenty’s biggest benefit fraudster.

Aroha Collier, of Fordlands, is charged with illegally taking nearly $200,000 in benefit payments over 18 years.

The 43-year-old faces 17 counts of benefit fraud involving $193,000.

Read the full article online >>> Rotorua Daily Post

Inland Revenue is welcoming the jail term of five years and nine months handed down to Mohammed Wasim for his part in a horticultural industry tax fraud involving more than $15 million.

The Wainuiomata orchard worker was sentenced in the Tauranga District Court by Judge Moore today on 81 counts of tax evasion, in the biggest horticultural industry tax fraud ever prosecuted by Inland Revenue. He is required to serve a minimum non-parole period of three years.

The total tax amount evaded was $15,080,861.

The department began investigating the tax evasion scheme operating in the agricultural contracting industry in 2001. It involved contractors evading GST, PAYE and income tax by claiming work completed for growers by the contractor’s employees had been sub-contracted to other companies.

The court heard Wasim recruited young Pakistani and Bangladeshi men to incorporate companies and register them for tax. Contractors contacted Wasim, known as a ‘money man’, to obtain a tax invoice from one of these companies. These invoices were for work the contractors had completed for growers, and for which they had already been paid.

The contractor paid the invoice, and Wasim repaid the money to the contractor, less a fee for himself.

At least 36 companies are believed to have been used in the scheme. Wasim is the first person to be sentenced in relation to this scheme, but other prosecutions are pending.

Inland Revenue Assurance Manager Raju Budhia said the prison sentence was a very good outcome for the horticultural industry as a whole.”Most contractors run honest businesses, and find it difficult to compete with those who are evading tax.”

”The courts are taking tax evasion seriously,” he said. ”Since January 2005, another twelve Bay of Plenty agricultural contractors have been successfully prosecuted for evading tax totalling more than $4.4 million. Ten of the contractors were jailed, for an average of 21 months.”

Mr Budhia said that Inland Revenue has the skills and resources to detect taxpayers trying to evade their taxes. “We use a wide range of sources and have extensive knowledge of profit levels in various industries.”

Source: Inland Revenue Media Release

Former Rawleigh ML Marketing Limited (RML) managing director Wilbour Terrence Rawleigh has been sentenced to 12 months home detention after being convicted of tax evasion involving $539,123.

Rawleigh earlier pleaded guilty in the Wellington District Court to six charges of aiding and abetting RML to file false GST and income tax returns, and one count each of failing to provide a personal income tax return, and filing a false income tax return, between 1997 and 2001.

The RML company, which is in liquidation, formerly controlled the Rawleigh brand in New Zealand. It was a multi-level marketing company that utilised distributors throughout New Zealand to sell toiletry and pharmaceutical products. RML sold the products to the distributors who could use the products themselves or on-sell them.

Rawleigh set up a company in Vanuatu to administer a range of extra bonus payments to RML’s distributors throughout New Zealand. RML then claimed GST and income tax deductions on these payments, many of which were not paid to distributors. In addition, Rawleigh paid himself substantial bonuses but did not include them in his personal income tax returns.

In 2005, RML was convicted of 29 offences of filing false GST returns and five offences of filing false income tax returns. The following year, former accountant Bill Duncan was jailed for nine months after pleading guilty to 25 charges of aiding and abetting RML in its offending.

Today’s sentencing concludes five years of investigation and court proceedings against RML, its accountant and director. Inland Revenue has recovered most of the tax evaded through the receivership of RML.

RML is no longer associated with the Rawleigh trademark.

Inland Revenue Assurance Manager Raju Budhia said this offending is a clear example of an individual increasing his personal wealth at the expense of others. “This is a case of substantial evasion, with Rawleigh deliberately evading taxes and increasing his personal wealth at the expense of honest taxpayers.

Mr Budhia said the sentence sends a strong warning to others who consider evading their taxes. “Inland Revenue will take firm action against anyone who deliberately sets out to evade their tax obligations.”

Source: Inland Revenue Media Release

Nearly 2300 investors have ended up getting more than 80 per cent of their money back in the final wash-up of the Western Bay Finance receivership.

The final cheques were mailed out this week and, 15 months after the Tauranga-based finance company plunged in to receivership, the investors have been repaid $40.2 million, representing 82 cents in the dollar.

Read the full article online >>> Bay of Plenty Times

A couple sentenced to home detention for benefit fraud have been allowed out after less than 24 hours – to get married.

Katarina Merveen White and Neville Glyn Carson were planning to be married before they were sentenced on benefit fraud charges but a family bereavement meant they had to postpone the wedding.

Read the full article online >>> Rotorua Daily Post

The financially beleaguered Whangarei Hearing Association has been liquidated, giving protection to its remaining assets.

Following his order in the Whangarei High Court yesterday, Justice Raynor Asher appointed chartered accountants Stephen Bennett and Timothy Hoyle as liquidators.

The Registrar of Incorporated Societies had applied to the High Court to have the association liquidated following an investigation sparked by allegations of financial mismanagement. Before proceedings began, the association’s lawyer Chris Muston sought leave to withdraw and said his client did not oppose a liquidation order.

Read the full article online >>> The Northern Advocate

A MAN who accepted money from Rotorua people for work he did not complete is in Gisborne recovering from a heart attack.

Merv Lanigan, who took deposits for a gutter protection system but did not finish the work, was thought to be in Auckland.

At least 20 people have come forward saying they paid deposits for work that was never done.

Read the full article online >>> The Daily Post

Low returns for carpet-cleaning and water-blasting business franchises led to Commerce Commission inquiries that resulted in two men facing fraud charges at a depositions hearing in Christchurch District Court.

Stewart John Brown, 43, was before the court yesterday on nine charges of fraud and four of forgery. Robert Llewellyn Parr, 55, of Horowhenua, faces a charge of obtaining by deception and one of fraud.

Read the full article online >>> NZ Herald – nzherald.co.nz

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