Joshua Luke Matheson jailed for five years for claiming he was earning a million-dollar salary

A jobless convicted sex offender claimed he was earning more than most CEOs in a ludicrous attempt at tax fraud. Here’s how his cunning plan came unstuck.

A convicted child sex offender currently serving nine years in prison has had his sentence extended for an attempted tax scam where he claimed to earn more than most chief executives of major companies.

Joshua Luke Matheson’s crimes were motivated by greed, District Court Judge Liesl Chapman said, and his audacious but poorly thought-out plan was driven by an earlier successful fraud.

Matheson had successfully claimed he was owed $29,000 in tax rebates in the 2013-14 financial year, claiming to have earned $96,518 with $16,000 worth of tax deductions.

The funds were paid into his account and then spent by Matheson.

However, an ATO investigation would later find his only income that year had been $5000 in Centrelink allowances.

The following year, buoyed by the success of his first claim, Matheson went all-out, claiming he had earned $926,929 from a variety of sources including Mathos PC, a computer business he claimed had a turned a yearly profit of $689,000.

Of those funds, he claimed to have $905,564 in tax deductions including $15,400 on a company car, $35,000 on travel expenses and $5500 on clothes.

A further $849,664 was for “other expenses”.

He claimed to be owed $466,805 in withheld tax.

The eye-watering sum came to the attention of the ATO which froze the payment before it could be paid into his account.

Matheson called the tax office and was “impatient” for the release of the money.

After an investigation, he was charged with attempting and obtaining a financial advantage by deception. But while those charges were pending, Matheson had much larger legal woes.

In 2020 Matheson pleaded guilty to maintaining an unlawful sexual relationship with a young girl for seven years.

In April 2020, Judge Sophie David sentenced Matheson to nine years in prison with a non-parole period of five years and six months.

She said Matheson’s crimes were “abhorrent” and rightly provoked feelings of “outrage and revulsion in the community”.

On Friday, Judge Chapman said Matheson still maintained his innocence about the tax fraud offending, despite being found guilty at trial by a jury.

“This offending was motivated by greed and an inflated sense of achievement from your earlier fraud which led to you to believe you could claim a million dollars,” she said.

She sentenced Matheson to five years in prison with a two year and seven month non-parole period.

The sentence for the federal tax offending will start on September 2, 2024 when the non-parole period for his state sex offending finishes.

Jeff Powell, for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, asked for Matheson to be ordered to repay the $29,000 he defrauded.

Judge Chapman refused to make the order because Matheson had no money to pay any debts and would in prison for the foreseeable future.