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A further three people have been sentenced over their involvement in the GST fraud scheme uncovered by Operation Protego.
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Further fraudsters jailed over GST fraud scheme
29 February 2024
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Another three people have been sentenced over their involvement in the large-scale GST fraud scheme investigated by Operation Protego.
In a recent update on Operation Protege, the ATO stated that Arec Akol had been sentenced in January after claiming $69,461 in fraudulent GST refunds.
Ms Akol was sentenced to 3 months in jail, released on security of $5,000 and good behaviour for a year. She was charged with one count of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
“Ms Akol had registered an ABN for a cleaning business which didn’t exist. Seven fraudulent BAS were then lodged between 1 April 2021 and 28 February 2022,” the ATO said.
“In total, Ms Akol claimed a GST refund of $69,461 which she was not entitled to. She was ordered to repay this amount in full.”
Adam Mitchell was sentenced in January to a community corrections order of 15 months after being charged with one offence of dealing in money or property that was the proceeds of crime worth $10,000 or more.
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“Mr Mitchell had registered an ABN in 2017 and registered for GST reporting on 8 April 2022. On 22 April 2022, he lodged a fraudulent BAS claiming a GST refund of $18,000,” the Tax Office said.
In addition to the community corrections order, Mr Mitchell was ordered to repay the Commonwealth the full amount he had fraudulently claimed.
In November, Wayne Garrett was sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in jail with a non-parole period of 1 year and 9 months and ordered to repay $180,095 for GST fraud.
“He was charged with one count of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, one count of attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception and one count of joint commission with a person of interest,” the Tax Office said.
“Mr Garrett received $180,095 in GST refunds that he was not entitled to. He also attempted to obtain a further $50,644.”
The ATO recently reported that it has taken compliance actions against more than 57,000 individuals in total through Operation Protego.
“This includes, where appropriate, proceeds of crime referrals to the Australian Federal Police and departure prohibition orders to prevent people with significant tax debt from leaving the country,” the Tax Office said.
“We continue to strengthen our GST analytical risk models and use technology to improve our risk identification procedures and streamline processes for managing high-risk refunds. Our risk models provide our staff with a more holistic view of GST lodgements to support a better client experience and increased system integrity.”
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