The Tauranga District Court sentenced a property developer on April 29 to two-and-half years in prison on proven charges of tax evasion and dishonesty.
The Court found Angela Therese Beckett (aka Angela Therese Breingan) guilty of five charges of providing false GST returns to obtain a refund, deliberately failing to file a GST return, and dishonesty regarding the use of a document.
An Inland Revenue Department (IRD) estimate found that the defendant had illegally obtained more than $135,000, failed to pay nearly $37,000 GST and attempted to claim $60,388 by filing a false return.
The Court heard that Ms Beckett was involved in property development partnerships called, ‘Ant Hill Developments,’ and ‘Three Fish Developments Limited’ through which she made a false claim of purchasing a property in which she was living. An IRD audit found that this transaction did not occur.
Further audit found that Ms Beckett had claimed two GST refunds in 2007 and 2008, also regarding three property transactions which did not take place.
An audit report said that she failed to file GST return for October 2008 and account for almost $37,000 GST from a property sale.
IRD Investigations Manager (Assurance) Jonathan Matthews said that the defendant had deliberately set out to claim money to which she was entitled.
“Ms Beckett made false GST claims and tried to avoid meeting her tax obligations on another property transaction. Our tax system relies on honesty and compliance and the sentence sends a clear message as to the consequences of making dishonest claims and attempting to avoid compliance rules,” he said.
