Mildura Magistrates’ Court: Bethany Garoni charged with $204,513 in attempted ATO fraud

A Mildura retail worker tried to con the government out of more than $200k, but she failed because the ATO quickly smelled “a rat”.

Bethany Garoni attempted to defraud the ATO out of more than $200,00 by lodging false GST claims that had been backdated to October 2022

A Mildura retail worker has avoided jail only because her attempt to rip off the ATO was so amateurish she never received a cent.

Between April and June 2022, Bethany Garoni attempted to claim $204,513 by lodging false GST refunds backdated to October 2021.

The court heard Garoni gave another person — referred to in court as the principal offender — her MyGov details including the one-time password needed each time a GST claim is lodged.

A business statement was lodged in April 2022 claiming the ATO owed her $132,516 — an amount which magistrate Michael Coghlan pointed out would have meant her business had expenses in the millions.

“What an extortionary business that would have been, you would have had to purchase over $1 million in stock with no sales to recoup that expenditure, no wonder the ATO smelled a rat,” Mr Coghlan said.

That claim was audited and Garoni received no money, however that didn’t deter her from making more claims over the following months

On November 17, Garoni was arrested and interviewed at the Mildura police station where she told police she provided her MyGov details to another person and acknowledged she knew she wasn’t entitled to GST refunds.

Garoni’s lawyer Hugh Middleton made submissions to the court that his client had fallen on hard times since losing her job.

“Unfortunately since losing her job she has, in her own words, gone downhill, but she has since gained employment at a local retail store as a manager,” he said.

“It was at a fairly low point in her life and she has since got back on her feet entirely under her own steam”

In his sentencing remarks Mr Coghlan said Garoni was lucky she hadn’t received any money otherwise it would have made his job very easy.

“Had you been successful in obtaining an amount near what you asked for it would have been very simple to give (you) an immediate term of imprisonment,” he said.

Garoni was given a community correction order and 200 hours of community work, however, Mr Coghlan warned her not to “muck around” otherwise she would land in jail.

“Let’s not muck around on today’s order, if she doesn’t want to do an order and comes back before me on a breach there is one way to go,” he said.

“If the community correction order doesn’t work it’s almost inevitable you will get jail time,” he said.