A bankrupt wine figure who claimed almost $1m in false ATO rebates has been jailed

A well-known South Australian wine industry figure funded his kids’ private school fees by defrauding the tax office of almost $1m.

A wine industry figure has been jailed for defrauding almost $1 million from the tax office to prop up a failing business and pay private school fees.

The man, who cannot be identified, pleaded guilty to six counts of dishonestly causing a loss or risk of a loss.

In sentencing in the District Court on Monday, Judge Liesl Kudelka said the man, 55, had provided “false and inaccurate” information to his accountants which they used to file 49 false business activity statements with the Australian Taxation Office.

“The offending consisted of serious, sustained and deliberate fraud,” she said.

Judge Kudelka said the “complex” fraud involved two winery businesses – which also cannot be identified – over three years between June 2010 and June 2013.

The wine figure pleaded guilty to six counts of dishonestly.

She said the false information provided to his accountants included falsely inflated purchases and sales figures, GST amounts and wine equalisation tax producer rebate amounts.

“As a result of the lodgements, the ATO paid refunds to those entities. You were not entitled to receive that money, which caused a loss to the Commonwealth,” she said.

She said on eight occasions the refunds were not paid, but there had been a “risk of loss”. He had also repaid $9552.

Judge Kudelka said the man began offending when he was in financial difficulty and personally bankrupt and the refunds had given the man a continuing source of income and “propped up” his wine businesses.

“You used the refunds to keep a failing business afloat,” she said.

She said he frequently transferred lump sums from the business account to his personal account which was his “prime source of income” to his everyday account.

“At a time when you were personally bankrupt, the refunds assisted your payment of private school fees and uniforms, your spending on a cinema, restaurants, hotels and retail as well as travel and accommodation in South Australia and interstate,” she said.

She said the man told a psychologist his offending began after he discovered his former accountant had allegedly been misappropriating funds, and his business struggled to recover from the losses.

Judge Kudelka said at the time of the offending the man had a drinking problem and was consuming one to two bottles of red wine daily which led to liver disease.

She said the type of fraud was difficult to detect with investigations and prosecutions being complex, difficult and time consuming.

After discount for his plea and reductions for time served in custody and on home detention, Judge Kudelka jailed the man for three years and five months with a non-parole period of one year and two months.

Prosecutors asked the court to consider a reparation order for the $897,315.50 still owed to the ATO. A decision on the order will be made later.