A Central Otago man was sentenced to prison for GST fraud.
Damon Anthony Forde, a freelance cameraman who did work for media companies and other local businesses, was sentenced to 32 months imprisonment in the Invercargill District court on 14 November.
He faced 28 charges of filing false GST returns to get refunds of more than $133,000 in the name of his company Live24 NZ Ltd.
As part of his work, Forde would often use his own vehicle to travel to work with journalists reporting on local events for national news broadcast.
He issued detailed invoices for the work which included GST amounts. Payments were made into the business’ bank accounts.
Forde filed GST returns for his company between September 2013 and July 2018, claiming expenses of more than a million dollars.
The GST returns for Live24 were false and there was no evidence in Live24’s or Forde’s bank accounts of purchases or expenses of the $1,152,440.00 he claimed.
Between 2015 and 2016, Forde was receiving a Work and Income benefit and he was not in a position to finance business spending of more than a million dollars.
Forde called Inland Revenue (IR) several times asking where the refunds were and also said he had large purchases coming up which was why he needed the refund.
IR started to audit Live 24 in June 2018 and tried to contact him on 26 different occasions either by phone, email or personal visit.
The money he received as refunds was deposited into accounts controlled by Forde and spent on takeaways, fast food or at local restaurants and other living expenses.