Hamish McLaren: ATO can look into fraudster cash haul

Fraudster Hamish McLaren could be investigated by the Australian Taxation Office over unpaid taxes.

Hamish McLaren.

Fraudster Hamish McLaren could be investigated by the Aust­ralian Taxation Office over unpaid­ taxes derived from the millions of dollars he stole from his victims.

The Sydney-based conman, born Hamish Watson, has already­ pleaded guilty to 18 charges­ of fraud committed between­ 2011 and 2017 and will be sentenced on June 13.

But the more than $7 million taken from at least 15 victims in his fraud spree could fall under the microscope of the tax office.

Confidentiality obligations prevented the tax office from confirmin­g whether it had investigated McLaren or would do so in the future, but an ATO spokeswoman told The Australian the organisation classed money derived­ from illegal means in the same way as regular income.

“The tests as to whether an amount is assessable income are the same for amounts received from legal and illegal activities,” the spokeswoman said.

“Where a taxpayer system­atic­ally engages in an illegal activ­ity and the elements of a business are present such as repetition, regularity, view to a profit and ­organisation, proceeds from the activity have an income character.”

One of McLaren’s victims, Lisa Ho, who bankrupted the fraudster in 2015, told The Australian she hoped the ATO could use its far-reaching powers to track down any money McLaren had hidden from victims and police.

“I’m sure he has (money ­hidden away),” Ms Ho said. “The police don’t think he has, but he’s taken too much money to not have.”

The tax office is able to use inform­ation gathered from taxpayers and third parties including government agencies, such as the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, and financial institutions to conduct investigations.

A former ATO intelligence office­r told The Australian he believed­ the case would be a prime target for the agency. “I was a former case selection officer and if this matter had come across my desk, I would have been delighted to chase it up,” the source said.

“I would think that the potential for tax evasion in a multi-­million-dollar scam like in this circumstance probably would be sufficient to start the ball rolling.”

The former intelligence source told The Australian he believe­d the agency was probably “best placed” to track down the money if it had been squirrelled away, as many of McLaren’s victim­s believe.

“It’s unusual for the tax office to share information with external entities but they do it if there are serious criminal matters, which seems to be the case here,” the insider said. “The tax office is probably the best-placed organisation to conduc­t an investigation of this nature because of their immed­iate access to a whole raft of data­bases. There’s a good chance, but it depends on how clever the guy is.”

The source said the tax office would be capable of delving into many years of McLaren’s banking and AUSTRAC records to try to locate cases of tax evasion.

That could include monitoring overseas travel records to locations­ where money could have been taken offshore.