Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
Gavin Lawrence Swan, of Green Point, faced Gosford District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to 33 counts of fraud and one count of dealing with proceeds of crime.
The 55-year-old was due to be sentenced but the court heard the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) had sought “more information” which led to “anomalies” being detected.
Prosecutor Adam O’Connor said the charges and agreed facts were based on calculations done by an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) officer in February and March, which totalled Swan’s fraud at about $580,000.
However on review, Mr O’Connor said the amount was found to be about $25,000 more, taking the total closer to $605,000.
Swan was remanded in custody in November after pleading guilty to the offences. Picture: Richard Noone
He said while this would be unlikely to affect Swan’s total sentence, it was important for the victims because the Crown would be seeking a restitution order to force the disgraced accountant to pay more than 100 of his former clients back their full entitlements.
Swan pleaded guilty to the 34 offences in the Local Court in November last year and was led into custody almost two years after NSW Police were tipped off about “suspicious” payments being made into his personal bank accounts.
Swan pictured nearly 25 years ago when he was working out of East Gosford. Whatever problems he had then are dwarfed with the issues he’s facing now. Picture: Mark Scott
Just 10 months before that, Swan had received a letter from then deputy commissioner Hoa Wood asking him to move from being a member to co-chairing an important ATO advisory body — the Tax Practitioners Stewardship Group — providing strategic direction to the tax office on everything from income tax to superannuation.
Mr O’Connor told the court the ATO had ordered another full audit of Swan’s fraudulent practices, which could be finalised by as early as next week.
But Swan’s barrister told the court they had only been informed about the discrepancy in the figures as recently as Wednesday afternoon.
“Disappointing would be a mild way of putting it,” he told the court.
Swan has pleaded guilty to using his position as a highly qualified accountant, who ran his successful Erina practice Absolute Accounting Services for 22 years, to defraud clients of their personal income tax returns and JobKeeper payments, while ripping off small business owners their GST and other Covid entitlements.
In February 2022, the ATO alerted police to suspicious payments to Swan’s personal accounts before officers attached to the State Crime Command’s Strike Force Windorra raided Absolute Accounting’s Erina offices.
– Calls for the ATO to improve its administration of taxpayer banking details and refunds to combat TaxID fraud
– IGTO interim (Phase 1) report into TaxID fraud makes 13 recommendations
The Inspector-General of Taxation and Taxation Ombudsman (IGTO) commenced an own-motion investigation into Tax identification (TaxID) fraud on 15 December 2023. This was in response to an increase in complaints and dispute investigations concerning TaxID fraud received by the IGTO.
Very pleased to see the Digital ID Bill/s passed by the Senate last night. It still has to progress through the House, hopefully next sitting, but a great step forward for the expansion of Australia’s Digital ID system. It will be voluntary, secure, convenient and inclusive. Proud of my team who have worked hard over many years to get to this point and thank everyone who has contributed to progressing this important initiative, including everyone who provided feedback on the bill. For more info go to www.digitalidentity.gov.
