Woman created three fake businesses to get $282,000 in GST tax refunds

The woman, who had both a pokie and a meth addiction, registered a fake business and then lodged eleven BAS statements in two months saying she had incurred expenses without receiving income.

Deborah Christene Martin, a Jobseeker recipient, heard about the GST tax refund scam from a friend and subsequently registered an ABN for a non-existent business. Picture: Istock

An unemployed woman who set-up fake businesses to receive $282,914 in GST tax refunds over two months has been sentenced in Cairns District Court.

Deborah Christene Martin, 55, of Cairns, faced Court on Monday morning charged with 11 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.

The court heard Martin set up a business in her own name and two in her friend’s names where she filed fraudulent Business Activity Statements to claim GST refunds so she could service her pokie machine and methamphetamine addictions.

In January 2022, Martin, a Jobseeker recipient, heard about the GST tax refund scam from a friend and subsequently registered an ABN for a non-existent business.

She then falsely claimed a number of expenses on her BAS over the next few weeks for amounts of $27,890, $12,595, $31,492 and $25,900.

Deborah Christene Martin, 55, of Cairns, faced Court on Monday morning charged with 11 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.

She then set-up other businesses for two friends with their consent, under the agreement they would receive two-thirds of any money she received back from the ATO.

For one of the friends she received back amounts of $19,300, $37,633, and $28,777.

While for other amounts of $29,837, $26,781, $36,309, $37,777

Martin pleaded guilty to all 11 counts.

However, her barrister John Seccull told the court his client had started the scam after a series of setbacks in her life, starting with a relationship that was “controlling and abusive”.

The court heard her then-partner, an undiagnosed schizophrenic, injected her with methamphetamine for a 40th birthday present and would later leave her for a “30-year-old woman who lived in the same caravan park”.

Mr Seccull said her drug problems stemmed from the relationship and was made worse by the break-up.

He explained that Martin then began caring for a woman with a terminal illness, and her drug use escalated again when the woman died.

After being injected with ice as a 40th birthday present, the woman found the drug “difficult to control” the court heard.

“She died at the end of 2021, just before the offending started,” Mr Secull said.

He said that Martin had found methamphetamine “difficult to control” and “fell into a depressive state.”

He added that she started using pokie machines to “alleviate her feelings of isolation and depression”.

“Her offending was motivated by a financial need for herself to feed her gambling habit, but it was also a way of ingratiating herself with those she thought she could get some support from. She had hopes of rekindling her old relationship,” he explained.

Mr Secculi said she gambled two-thirds of the money on pokie machines and spent the rest on meth.

Martin listened-on sombrely in the dock behind him.

Wearing high cut denim shorts and a sports jacket, she frequently teared up and went through multiple tissues as he spoke.

“This was not a sophisticated operation. All that was required was for her to register an Australian Business Number and then lodge BAS statements saying she had incurred expenses without receiving income,” he said.

In sentencing her, Judge Dean Morzone KC, said Martin’s offending “was blatant” and “motivated by the financial need that was to some degree self-imposed”.

He said he would be particularly lenient on her offences involving her two friends as she “volunteered this offending to the police before it was detected”.

Judge Morzone sentenced her to three years in prison but said she would be released in 10 months’ time, where she would be placed on a bond for four years.

She was also ordered to re-pay $89,767.

Originally published as Woman created three fake businesses to get $282,000 in GST tax refunds