A Victorian woman avoided jail after repeated efforts to have more than $115,000 in fake GST payments paid out to a dog grooming business that had been set up more than a decade earlier but remained dormant until early 2020.

The woman is one of at least 56,000 people who participated in the $1.6 billion tax fraud scheme, which was spread by social media influencers on TikTok. The scam involved individuals obtaining an Australian Business Number then using their MyGov account to file fraudulent business activity statements to claim GST refunds that in some cases exceeded $100,000.