A senior Airservices manager who used a series of false documents and two fake aviation companies to defraud the Tax Office of $380,000 has been locked up while he awaits sentence.
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Andrew Charles Richards, 39, is facing sentencing in the ACT Supreme Court on fraud charges relating to his deception of tax authorities.
Richards registered two fake aviation businesses named Infinite Aviation and the National Register of Encumbered Aircraft.
The first was said to provide flight training and chartered planes, and export custom aircraft parts.
Court documents suggest he used the fake company to claim $227,256 through 44 business activity statements lodged between 2007 and 2010.
The second business was used to claim $151,337 between 2008 and 2010.
The fraud was discovered during an audit of the two companies in September 2010, court documents say.
Richards was still working at Airservices Australia, and neither of the business entities in his name were genuine.
A month later, he sent the Australian Taxation Office a letter stating that he deemed himself "unsuitable to operate any kind of business in the future".
He committed to paying back the money, and his lawyer, Michael Kukulies-Smith, told the Supreme Court on Thursday that roughly $86,000, possibly more, had been returned so far.
Mr Kukulies-Smith asked the court to delay sentencing Richards to allow time to check the exact amount of repayments, and for a report on his client's mental health to be prepared.
He said Richards had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and had made admissions to police, entitling him to a discount to his sentence.
There was a considerable delay in bringing the offender to court, which will be taken into account in sentencing.
The investigation took place in 2010, the court heard, and a search warrant was executed soon after.
But it took until last year to charge Richards, a delay questioned by Chief Justice Helen Murrell on Thursday.
The Commonwealth prosecution said it would investigate the cause of the delay, but said the brief may have been with their office for a year before the charge.
Chief Justice Murrell revoked Richards' bail, saying he would be sentenced to full-time imprisonment, and should start serving time as soon as possible.
The matter will return to court in July.
