Perth accountant jailed for tax fraud

ATO/policy-and-regulation/

22 February 2019
| By Anastasia Santoreneos |
image
image
expand image

Perth-based accountant, Shane Read, has been sentenced in the Perth District Court to four years’ jail for tax fraud, after he was convicted of obtaining and attempting to obtain over $250,000 in total from his clients and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Read, an employee of Finkelstein Hickmott, lodged 21 of his client’s income tax returns without authorisations, and accessed four of his client’s activity statements credit account balances resulting in wrongful payment of tax refunds into his own bank account.

Following the ATO’s pre-issue audit of an authorised business activity statement (BAS) lodgement, which contained false information in a further attempt to obtain funds from the ATO, it was discovered that Read had obtained a financial advantage committing fraud.

ATO assistant commissioner, Tim Roach, said tax and BAS agents, accountants and other trusted advisors have a critical role as intermediaries, conduits and influencers of the behaviour in the tax and superannuation system.

“The ATO has a strong commitment to protecting honest taxpayers by identifying and prosecuting any tax agents who abuse their position of trust by either conspiring with or against their clients to defraud the tax system,” he said.

“We welcome this sentence handed down today and we will continue to work with tax professionals to ensure the integrity of the system and to protect honest tax professionals and the community from these types of crimes.”

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

So we are now underwriting criminal scams?...

1 month 3 weeks ago

Glad to see the back of you Steve. You made financial more expensive, not more affordable as you claim, and presided ...

2 months ago

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

4 months ago

Entireti has unveiled the new name for the AMP financial advice businesses that it acquired last year....

4 weeks ago

A Sydney financial adviser has been permanently banned from providing any financial services, with the regulator deriding his “lack of integrity, trustworthiness and prof...

2 weeks 6 days ago

Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has provided further information about the second tranche of the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) reforms....

1 week 5 days ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS