The Snitch: Mark Judge has a win over ATO but still faces $2m battle

How did friend of the Ibrahims Mark Judge get a win over the ATO in his $2m tax battle? Why the NSW Supreme Court gave the Cranston’s verdict a Hollywood edge. Read this and more in The Snitch.

Bikie associate turned eastern suburbs fashion enthusiast Mark Judge had a win against the taxman this week — but he still has a fight on his hands.

Judge, a longtime friend of the Ibrahim family, had a default judgment ordering him to pay $2.4m in unpaid taxes overturned in the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday.

The court heard the ATO got the default judgment against Judge in October, claiming he had not paid multiple years’ worth of tax.

But Justice Richard Weinstein overturned the order on Thursday after finding the ATO did not give Judge sufficient notice of the order.

Justice Weinstein also found that Judge’s mental health issues prevented him from instructing his lawyers to respond to the ATO in a timely fashion.

Mark Judge, with then partner Meg Lindsay, at the Downing Centre courts in Sydney on an unrelated matter in 2021. Picture: Christian Gilles

Judge provided the court with a long list of issues that had contributed to his mental health conditions via an affidavit written by high-profile psychologist Tim Watson-Munro.

The list included the incident where Judge almost died when he was stabbed in the stomach in 2011.

Mark Judge after he was arrested in Mexico.

“As a result of using medical marijuana, he developed substance abuse issues which exacerbated his mental health difficulties,” Judge’s submission to the court said.

Judge also said an incident where he was arrested and detained by police while holidaying in Mexico aggravated his “mental health condition arising from his childhood when he was a ward of the state”.

Judge, who has turned his talents to selling high-end watches in recent years, also told the court he disputed the amount the ATO claimed he owed.

Judge was given a brief reprieve and ordered to file a defence by March 16. He was also ordered to pay the legal costs of the ATO for the proceedings.

UNSCRIPTED DRAMA

They don’t mean to do it but even Hollywood’s best writers couldn’t have scripted the drawn-out drama the NSW Supreme Court made us sit through before the verdict in Adam Cranston’s $105m tax case was revealed.

The trial was so big it had taken about eight months for all the evidence to be heard, where five people stood accused of conspiring to rip off the tax office in one of the biggest frauds in Australian history.

Adam Cranston has been found guilty of tax fraud. Picture: David Swift.

Michael Cranston was the former ATO deputy commissioner. Picture: AAP Image/Peter Rae

Then, the deliberations of the jury and the delays that plagued that process took us to Tuesday.

We were notified some time after mid-morning that the jury had reached a verdict on three of the accused. Finally! But which ones?

We can’t know yet. The jury will only reveal who the trio are when the court reconvenes after noon.

AUDIO: Listen to Adam Cranston’s conversation with his father in the interactive player below

Noon hits. But before the verdicts the judge and lawyers needed to talk about something else for what felt like an hour but was probably only about 20 minutes.

Then finally an answer.

The jury had verdicts for Adam Cranston, lawyer Dev Menon and ex-pro snowboarder Jay Onley.

But what was the jury’s verdict?!

We’ll be right back.

The day Adam Cranston was arrested for tax fraud in 2017. He now faces 25 years in jail.

The court has more procedure to deal with. And then finally they got to it.

One by one, in excruciating detail, the jury foreman went through their findings for each of the two charges of the three accused. Finally, all were found guilty of both charges.

First Cranston, then Menon and finally Onley. Snitch can only imagine the stress they were

feeling.

But then again, it’s probably a good motivator not to rip off $105m from the tax office.

The jury continues to deliberate over the other two accused.

CRANSTON’S CASH SPLASH

Still on Cranston — at the peak of his offending he wasn’t afraid of splashing cash on things he loves.

One of his great loves was sports cars to the point where he assembled a racing team.

Adam Cranston (third from right) celebrating at Bathurst.

In 2017, he celebrated on the podium of the Bathurst 12-hour event, where he raced an imported Porsche at Mt Panorama.

Leading up to the race, Cranston was caught on a secret police recording played in court that showed he was willing to pay overs to get a track employee to stay late so he could get in a few training laps.

“I’ve got to do … training for the Bathurst 12 Hour,” Cranston said in the call on January 24, 2017.

“I’d be happy to pay a bit extra … if you could stay open a little bit later.”