'Clearly false': Woman blames $750,000 false tax return on bad internet during Ethiopia trip

A woman who made a false $750,000 GST claim tried to blame the “mistake” on bad internet connectivity during one of her many trips to Ethiopia.

But neither Inland Revenue nor the judge who has sentenced her for the false claim believed her excuse.

Helen Fuataha made at least 60 minor adjustments to her business’s online Inland Revenue account before making the $750,000 claim.

The department recorded her web activity before the claim. It showed her altering her credit adjustment and private assets and ticking and unticking a declaration box before filing her return.

Judge Lisa Tremewan told the Waitākere District Court at Fuataha’s sentencing on Thursday that the logged computer activity was “illuminating” and “damning” evidence.

Fuataha defended seven counts of knowingly providing false information to Inland Revenue to get tax refunds in a trial before the judge last October.

Judge Tremewan’s decision of guilt on the seven charges was released in May.

The judge told the court yesterday that Fuataha incorporated the company Only1 Company Limited in February 2016, with herself as the sole director and shareholder.

The company was listed as a call centre and plaster-stopping business. From incorporation to early 2017, Fuataha made seven false returns on its behalf during that period.

She ultimately claimed for around $860,000 and Inland Revenue deposited more than $111,000, the judge said.

When a final $750,000 return was claimed in March 2017 it alerted Inland Revenue’s system and a letter was sent to Fuataha, announcing that the return would be “withheld”.

The department’s computer surveillance showed Fuataha opened and read that letter, the judge said.

The next month she made several “unsuccessful” attempts to amend the return, telling the department in one message that she had meant to claim for $75,000.

She said the $750,000 claim had been made in error, accidentally adding an extra digit because of the bad internet connection while she was in Ethiopia.

The IRD began an audit of her company, and she “reiterated” that she had travelled to Ethiopia several times, and the last return was a mistake, the judge said.

She told them the other returns were based on “legitimate business expenditure”, the judge reported.

Judge Tremewan said the woman gave the auditors a “large, unordered stack of receipts” detailing various expenses including petrol, food, alcohol, cigarettes, lollies and Sky TV.

She found Fuataha spent the money she received from the returns on her “daily lifestyle” then later used the receipts to claim for business expenses.

The web activity evidence “spoke for itself”, she said, and the Ethiopia excuse was “clearly false”.

It was not just a simple matter of adding a wrong number at the end, the judge said, Fuataha had a “modus operandi” for filing false returns, in “increasingly” higher payouts.

“Early on you realised you were able to record such returns with seemingly no questions asked,” the judge detailed. “ ... at least until the system was alerted to the reality of what was going on.”

The judge said that during an interview with the IRD in November 2017, Fuataha claimed to have more receipts that were lost when her sister housesat for her during one of her trips to Ethiopia.

Fuataha’s lawyer, Andrew Comesky, noted that a Corrections report before the court assessed his client at a low risk of reoffending and further harm.

He also noted that at 60 years old, she had a previously clean criminal record.

The judge said while there would be no discount for remorse, she noted that Fuataha had told a probation officer that filing for bankruptcy would be a “chump way” out.

She wanted to repay what she had stolen and the whole experience had been a big lesson for her, the probation officer wrote in their report.

In her own way, Judge Tremewan said, Fuataha had got the point.

Comesky agreed it was unclear whether his client was blatantly not taking responsibility or if she was just confused about the whole process.

The judge said the total amount wrongfully paid out was $111,154.06.

Lawyer for the commissioner of Inland Revenue Nicholas Goodger said the organisation generally sought full reparation for what was stolen but most of the time that didn’t happen.

The court heard that Fuataha had moved up north and had a steady job.

Judge Tremewan said in sentencing her she had to uphold the “high trust model” that operates in New Zealand in filing tax returns.

She sentenced Fuataha to 10 months’ home detention, 150 hours’ community work and to pay $15,000 reparation to Inland Revenue in weekly instalments over five years.

Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s currently based in Auckland covering justice-related stories.