Bankruptcy proceedings begin against Roberta Williams over $300,000 bill
THE taxman has started bankruptcy proceedings against gangland widow and convicted drug dealer Roberta Williams.
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THE taxman has started bankruptcy proceedings against gangland widow and convicted drug dealer Roberta Williams.
Documents recently lodged in the Federal Court reveal Ms Williams owes the tax office almost $300,000.
Ms Williams, 47, was married to multiple murderer and drug boss Carl Williams, who was beaten to death with a bicycle seat inside Barwon Prison in 2010.
She pleaded guilty in 2004 to trafficking in a commercial quantity of ecstasy and was earlier convicted of trafficking amphetamines and possession of ecstasy and cocaine.
The creditor’s petition, lodged by Deputy Commissioner of Taxation, Robert Ravanello, on June 9, applies to the Federal Court for a sequestration order under the Bankruptcy Act against the estate of Ms Williams.
It states she owes the tax office $295,632.
Ms Williams’ agent, Matt Ryan-Garnsey, last night said Ms Williams believed the tax office had contacted the various media outlets she had sold her story to over the years to ask how much she had been paid and had used that to calculate the almost $300,000 tax bill.
“She disputes the amount and will fight it in court,” he said.
Mr Ryan-Garnsey said Ms Williams’ accountant believed the true amount owed to the tax office from her media payments was about $60,000.
The tax office started bankruptcy proceedings against Ms Williams, of Essendon, after she failed to pay the $230,623 the Supreme Court ordered her to pay the tax office in 2013.
That debt has since grown by the $65,009 the tax office is demanding in interest.
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The tax office case against Ms Williams is due to be heard in the Federal Court on July 14.
“If you or your lawyer do not attend, then the court may deal with the petition in your absence and make a sequestration order making you bankrupt,” the creditor’s petition warns Ms Williams.
“At the time when the act of bankruptcy was committed, the respondent debtor was ordinarily resident in Australia.
“The applicant creditor does not hold security over the property of the respondent debtor.”
The Herald Sun last week reported that Ms Williams is also being sued for more than $22,000 in allegedly unpaid school fees racked up during her daughter Dhakota’s years at the prestigious Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School.
That report said Ms Williams was also being chased over an outstanding debt of about $40,000 from Carl Williams’ funeral and that she still owed money for his elaborate grave headstone, which cost more than $16,000.
Ms Williams is also involved in a feud with Kathleen Bourke, the partner of Carl Williams’ father George, over the late George Williams’ estate.
George Williams, who dealt drugs with his son, died, aged 69, of a heart attack last month.
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At the time of Ms Williams’ guilty plea to trafficking in a commercial quantity of ecstasy in 2004, her barrister, Con Heliotis, QC, made an emotional plea for a suspended sentence.
Ms Williams clashed verbally with a policewoman during a pre-sentence hearing, calling the officer “f ... ing ugly”.
“I wish she’d place her badge down there so we could punch on and get it done, because she has got so much to say,” she said.
Mr Heliotis made much of Ms Williams’ traumatic childhood.
He also claimed she was suffering post-natal depression at the time of the drug offence.
Her fourth child, Dhakota, her first with Carl Williams, was six weeks old when Ms Williams was arrested in May 2001.
Mr Heliotis said Ms Williams was one of eight children.
“Her father, a truck driver, was burnt to death in a trucking accident when she was eight months old,” he told the Supreme Court in 2004.
“Her mother was clearly unable to cope with eight children and found little time for any of them.
“The mother’s two de facto partners following her husband’s death were both physically violent to Roberta Williams and her siblings.
“Roberta was left to roam the streets from about the age of eight.
“By the time she was 11, her mother packed her belongings and put them out in the street, literally, and she was then made a ward of the state.
“At 16 years of age she formed a relationship with her first boyfriend, who became her first husband. By 17 she had given birth to her first child, Tye, to her husband, Dean.”
“Your Honour will see that some 16 years ago, when she was 19, she served three months’ imprisonment for trafficking amphetamines.”
Mr Heliotis said Ms Williams was also convicted of possession of ecstasy and cocaine in November 2000.
After living together for 10 years, Roberta and Dean married in 1995. They had three children.
“They separated in 1997 following the last of frequent and extreme bouts of physical violence perpetrated on her by her first husband,” Mr Heliotis told the court.
“On the separation from her husband, she moved to the Essendon area with the children and that is where she met Carl Williams in 1998.”
Mr Heliotis’ plea failed to get the suspended sentence he was seeking for Ms Williams.
Justice Murray Kellam jailed her for 18 months and ordered that she serve at least six.
“I can do jail standing on my head,” Ms Williams told the Herald Sun at the time.
“The kids are stressed out ‘cos they are going to miss me. But they are prepared for it. They know I am going in.”
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