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A 44-year-old has been sentenced to three years and six months in prison after defrauding the ATO during the pandemic to fund her horses and businesses.
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Victorian equestrian jailed for $700k in fake GST, JobKeeper claims
22 November 2024
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A Victorian woman has been jailed after illegally obtaining around $450,000 in GST refunds and attempting to claim a further $245,000 in fraudulent JobKeeper payments to fund her equestrian pursuits and businesses.
The woman, 44, pleaded guilty to her offences in June and was sentenced on Wednesday to three years and six months’ jail, with a non-parole period of 20 months.
The Ballarat County Court found she lodged 26 fake BAS claims in the name of her ex-husband and son over a 15-month period for a horse stud farm business registered in December 2019.
She also lodged JobKeeper applications in the name of her ex-husband and son, despite neither running a business at the time.
In total, almost $700,000 in fraudulent claims were made and resulted in the ATO depositing $423,479 in GST refunds to her family’s bank account.
The ATO eventually traced the suspicious claims back to the woman, with an audit finding found no business activity was taking place and there was no entitlement to the GST refunds.
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A joint AFP and ATO Serious Financial Crime Taskforce (SFCT) investigation then began in January 2020, resulting in her arrest a year later.
She told AFP investigators the fraudulently obtained funds were used to buy and feed horses, operate her separate business and lent to other individuals.
She pled guilty to four offences in Ballarat County Court in June 2024, including two counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, one count of attempting to obtain financial advantage by deception and one count of using a forged document.
AFP superintendent Bernard Geason said the sentence was a warning to people who sought to exploit and steal from the government and Australian taxpayers.
“With so many Australians doing it tough, it is more important than ever that we seek out those who heap the burden of crime on the public,” he said.
“Anyone who deliberately sets out to exploit the financial system is engaging in criminal behaviour. The AFP, through the SFCT, is dedicated to tracking down offenders and bringing you to justice.”
ATO deputy commissioner and SFCT chief John Ford praised the work of the two agencies.
“Once again, this case demonstrates the SFCT’s ability to deliver a whole-of-government response to target criminal behaviour, sending a clear message to the community that we bring those who exploit the tax and super system to account for their actions,” he said.
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