Gangland widow Roberta Williams hit with bankruptcy fines
TWO months after losing a legal bid to save her home from the taxman, underworld figure Roberta Williams was convicted and fined $1000 for failing to file a statement of affairs relating to her 2016 bankruptcy.
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GANGLAND widow Roberta Williams’ financial woes have continued, with the underworld figure on Tuesday convicted and fined $1000 for failing to file a statement of affairs relating to her 2016 bankruptcy — after she forgot to turn up to the court hearing.
Two months after losing a bid to save her home from the taxman, Williams’ offence under the federal Bankruptcy Act carried a maximum penalty of $10,500.
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Her case was heard in her absence at Broadmeadows Magistrates’ Court, with magistrate Abigail Burchill granting a prosecution application to hear the case when Williams failed to appear.
“I’m satisfied Ms Williams is aware of the proceeding,” Ms Burchill said, adding the mother of five had been served with notice of the hearing in July.
Williams told the Herald Sun she had forgotten the scheduled hearing because she was moving out of her home in Primrose St, Essendon, after the Australian Taxation Office served an eviction notice on her on Monday.
“Oh, s---,” she said when told she had missed the court hearing. “I’m busy sorting stuff out. We’ve got the notice to evacuate. I’m trying to work that out.”
Williams was disappointed to hear she had been fined. “Oh really? I can really afford that,” she said, tongue in cheek.
The widow of underworld killer Carl Williams, who was bashed to death in Barwon Prison in 2010, has had a long-running battle with the ATO.
The ATO started bankruptcy proceedings in the Federal Court against Roberta Williams in 2016, saying she owed almost $300,000 in unpaid taxes. She was officially declared bankrupt in November that year.
Federal prosecutor David Sagnelli told the court yesterday Williams had repeatedly failed to meet Australian Financial Security Authority requests to file required documents stating her income, assets and debts.
He said appointed trustee Malcolm Howell first contacted Williams in November 2016, telling her she had been made bankrupt and she had to file a statement of affairs.
“This is the first of many contacts in between,” Mr Sagnelli said.
Tuesday’s penalty hearing might not be the end of the saga as the AFSA considered its options, the court heard. “(The statement’s) still outstanding which means she could be charged with this again,” Ms Burchill said.
It is the latest financial blow for Williams, who says she has been left homeless after she was ordered in February to sell the family property to meet $576,000 in unpaid taxes racked-up by her late father-in-law, George Williams.
She unsuccessfully appealed and has to move this week from the townhouse where she has lived with her partner, and her daughter, Dhakota, and son, Giuseppe, for the past decade.
Williams is expected to walk away with little from the sale of the $1 million property