Manly luxury property developer Benjamin Ensor jailed for six years
He used the Australian Taxation Office as his personal ATM — illegally pocketing more than $3 million and leaving a trail of misery among those he ripped off — including his own girlfriend. Benjamin Ensor’s greed has now landed him one of the longest jail sentences for fraud. HOW HE DID IT
His luxury apartment development on the Manly foreshore turned over $28 million sales in two years, but in reality Benjamin Ensor had built a house of cards using phoenix structures and tax fraud.
The discharged bankrupt was using the Australian Taxation Office like an ATM, illegally pocketing $3.4 million through falsely claiming GST refunds he wasn’t entitled to and failing to report property sales to avoid paying GST.
For his efforts Ensor, 57, copped the biggest penalty yet for phoenix-related offences, sentenced in January to six years’ jail after pleading guilty.
He was also ordered to repay $1.8 million to the tax office.
“This case exhibits classic illegal phoenix behaviour,” said Assistant Commissioner Aislinn Walwyn said.
“Companies were deliberately liquidated to avoid paying creditors and taxes. New companies continued operating the same or a similar business with the same ownership.
“Illegal phoenix activity is a serious threat to the integrity of the tax and superannuation systems and costs the community billions of dollars every year,” Ms Walwyn said.
For three years to March 2011 Ensor made 89 false statements associated with nine companies and was busted through audits from the tax office’s serious evasion team.
He falsely declared expenses of $24 million on a fake sales figure of $290,453 to claim GST credits up to $354,637, which he often withdrew in cash or bank cheque from the Westpac branch on The Corso at Manly.
“The expenditure claims were false and never genuinely incurred by the entities. As such the entities were not entitled to receive refunds for GST,” the statement of facts lodged at the Downing Centre court said.
One person who paid a high financial price was Ensor’s former romantic partner Suzanne Cameron, who described him as a charmer, good talker and “basically a conman”.
Ensor installed her as a director on a number of his companies while he was banned from being a director due to bankruptcy, but afforded her no control or oversight on the operations of the companies.
“I was kept very much in the dark. I was naive and stupid. I trusted him and I put a lot of money into the business.”
She lost $700,000 in the “humiliating” experience and now rents a friend’s apartment and works two jobs, one “ironically” teaching business students at a private college using her business degree.
Ms Cameron was to be a witness against Ensor until he pleaded guilty. She frequently signed documents at Ensor’s behest without reading what she was signing.
“He would never show me documents and having so many companies, that made him a bit suss.”
The ATO’s investigation into Ensor began with audits over tax on apartment developments at 76-78 North Steyne, called Kay-Ye-My, and 91 North Steyne, finally concluding with a result 11 years after his crimes began.
ATO Deputy Commissioner Will Day said: “Investigation of illegal phoenix activity is complex and time consuming. Civil and criminal matters typically take many years to finalise. So it’s very rewarding for our teams to see a successful prosecution as we saw with the six-year jail term of Benjamin Ensor in January.”
ARE YOU A VICTIM OF PHOENIXING?
EMAIL: JENNIFER.SEXTON@NEWS.COM.AU
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