Two Canberra homeowners convicted of faking their relationship status to fraudulently obtain a lower stamp duty have cleared their names in court.
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The pair were in a romantic relationship and living together when they first decided to buy a block of land and build a new home in the suburb of Bonner several years ago.
But they soon found themselves fighting allegations of fraud after an application for the ACT Government's Home Buyer Concession Scheme, an initiative designed to help Canberrans buy a new home or land.
The scheme allows buyers a lower rate on their stamp duty, provided they meet strict criteria, including an income test.
Suspicions were first raised when the woman applied for the grant by herself, despite living with the man.
Their combined incomes would have made them ineligible.
The woman listed her marital status as single on the application, and left the field about her domestic partner blank.
The pair had met in 2010, were engaged roughly six months later, and moved in together in Giralang and then Palmerston, before looking at the Bonner block
But they claimed they had split up at the time the woman applied for the concession, before getting back together roughly a month later.
Prosecutors relied mainly on evidence that they were both contributing to a joint bank account at the time, and used mobile phone records to show the ongoing pattern of communications between the two.
Motor vehicle registration data was also used to show they had been living at the same address, which had not changed during their supposed break-up.
In their defence, the couple said they began looking for the block of land while living together, but began having relationship difficulties.
They said they split up but stayed in the same home because they had nowhere else to go, occupying different rooms and living areas.
The woman claimed she still wanted to go ahead with the purchase of the land, and so she did it in her own name.
She said they later got back together after she made the stamp duty concession application. She then fell pregnant and the pair got married.
Both denied they had conspired to fake their relationship status to obtain the lower stamp duty.
They were convicted of criminal offences regardless, with Chief Magistrate Lorraine Walker finding both lacked credibility.
But the pair had their names cleared in the ACT Supreme Court on Monday, after Justice John Burns found Ms Walker's decision was infected by error.
Justice Burns found the magistrate erred in thinking the woman had initiated the break-up because she was worried about committing to buying the land with her partner.
He said that finding may have infected her view of the woman's credibility.
Justice Burns also said the telephone records between the two should have been given little weight, because there was no evidence that explained them or what they actually meant.
He found Ms Walker had reversed the onus of proof on the couple to explain a payment into the woman's bank account, and missed the significance of evidence corroborating the fact their relationship resumed after their stamp duty application.
"I am satisfied that the magistrate made errors of fact and principle in determining that the appellants were guilty of the offences," he wrote.
The verdicts of guilty were set aside and both were cleared of the charges.