A former director for Agri Beef Cattle Company and HQB Exporters has been sentenced to almost six years jail for claiming more than $820,000 in GST refund claims in 2014.
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New Zealand resident Anthony Lee, 65, was sentenced on Wednesday at the Brisbane District Court.
The charges related to the fraudulent refund claims he made in Business Activity Statements lodged for two separate companies while he was living and working in Brisbane two years ago.
Mr Lee was also ordered to repay the money he fraudulently claimed.
As the Agri Beef Cattle Company director, Mr Lee lodged five BAS statements and fraudulently claimed $735,049 in GST refunds and attempted to obtain a further $185,235.
He also provided false statements to the ATO to substantiate his expense claims.
As the HQB Exporters director, Mr Lee lodged a BAS statement and fraudulently claimed $85,259 in GST refunds.
He had overstated the business expense claims and did not provide any tax invoices to substantiate the claim.
Assistant commissioner Peter Vujanic said the outcome was a credit to the persistence and professionalism of the ATO officers in the case that justice had finally been served.
“Mr Lee set out to deliberately break the law for his own benefit and, even when caught, refused to take responsibility for his crimes,” he said.
“Contrary to popular belief, tax crime is not victimless: when you claim a refund you’re not entitled to, you are stealing from the whole community and disadvantaging Australians who do the right thing.
Mr Vujanic said intentionally claiming a tax refund by providing fasle information to the ATO was not just deceitful but it was illegal.
“We have sophisticated data analytics tools and intelligence to assist us to detect potential refund fraud and target those who do the wrong thing," he said.
“As this case demonstrates, if you’re caught breaking the law we will hold you accountable, even if it means pursuing you in the criminal judicial system.”
Mr Lee was convicted of five charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception contrary to section 134.2(1) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Commonwealth), one charge of attempting to obtain financial advantage by deception contrary to section 11.1 and 134.2(1) of the Criminal Code 1995 (Commonwealth) and two charges of providing forged documents.
