ATO wins fight to seize gangland widow widow Roberta Williams’ home
UNDERWORLD widow Roberta Williams says she will now be left homeless after losing a last-ditch legal bid to save her Essendon property from the taxman.
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UNDERWORLD widow Roberta Williams says she will now be left homeless after losing a last-ditch legal bid to save her Essendon property from the taxman.
Williams was ordered in February to sell the Primrose Street property to meet $576,000 in unpaid taxes racked-up by her late father-in-law George Williams.
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Williams appealed and took the fight to the Supreme Court, where she was today handed a resounding loss.
“The appeal has no merit,” said Justice Joanne Cameron. “It was bound to fail and ought be dismissed in its entirety.”
The decision means Williams will likely be left with little once the $1 million is sold to pay the tax bill and a mortgage.
The court heard that Williams is an undischarged bankrupt who will not be slugged with the legal costs of the frivolous appeal.
George Williams ran up the massive tax bill between 2001 and 2004 and at one point struck a deal to have it paid by police.
But the deal fell through in 2009 and the ATO has been chasing the money ever since.
Mr Williams at one point took out a mortgage to pay the bill, but the money was never forwarded to the Australian Taxation Office.
A visibly upset Williams attended Wednesday’s court hearing with her daughter Dhakota and refused to comment afterwards.
In March, Supreme Court Associate Justice Mark Derham ordered the house sold to enable the ATO to be paid, ending Ms Williams’ long fight to keep it.
It is also home to Dhakota, Ms Williams’ daughter with Carl, and her new partner and their son.
Last year, Ms Williams abused lawyers as she struggled to hang on to the property.
She said yesterday she had fought to keep the house because it was left to Dhakota.
“Victoria Police made a deal with Carl to pay the tax debt, I’ve got the documents,’’ she said.
“They reneged just before Carl was murdered. They got their money back. It’s appalling. Carl lost his life and for what?”
In 2009 then deputy commissioner Simon Overland authorised a Victoria Police payment of the tax debt, but the deal was later blocked.
The March judgment reads: “On March 17, 2009, (Inspector Peter) Wilkins called (the ATO) and advised that Overland had OK’d the payment of George Williams’ tax debt.
“However Wilkins asked … whether the payment could be held in abeyance by the ATO until Victoria Police advised that it could be applied in reduction of the tax debts.
“Wilkins stated that Victoria Police still had some issues that they were discussing with George Williams that required resolution.”
But the deal was blocked and the ATO has been fighting to recover the debt since. Carl Williams was murdered in jail in 2010. George died in 2016.
Associate Justice Derham ruled: “The (ATO) be paid their costs first from the net proceeds of sale of the land in Primrose St, Essendon.”
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