'Organised crime at its worst': The new scam targeting Australians at tax time
Top GC cosmetic injector embroiled in failed attempt to defraud Australian Taxation Office
A renowned Gold Coast cosmetic injector has faced court after a failed attempt to defraud the Australian Taxation Office. Find out what she did
Amaani SiddeekHealth and Education Reporter@AmaaniSiddeek Gold Coast Bulletin
2 min read
June 17, 2024
One of the Gold Coast’s top cosmetic injectors has been embroiled in an elaborate scheme to defraud the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
Surfers Paradise cosmetic injector and registered nurse Irina Mekhanikova, 54, pleaded guilty in Southport District Court to one count each of disposing property with intent to defraud, concealing property and making false declarations in an attempt to defraud the ATO.
Between 2011 and 2019 Mekhanikova, who currently runs the Surfers Paradise company Aesthetic Nurse Irina, was the co-director of her husband’s former bottleshop Liquorcoast Pty Ltd, the court was told.
A 2021 an ATO audit of the company revealed the couple owed more than $226,000 in unpaid excise duties.
The audit also found that the company had been liquidated and deregistered for some time and deemed Mekhanikova and her husband personally liable for the debt. A statutory demand to pay or enter a payment plan was then issued.
But just a week after the audit, the couple began liquidating, concealing and disposing their assets, crown prosecutor Ameera Mahomed Ismail said.
In May 2021, Mekhanikova reached out to a real estate agent to sell a plot of land she owned in Tasmania. In September it sold for $285,000 and she received about $274,000 in settlement funds which she “gifted” to her husband.
The court was told Mekhanikova’s husband then used the money to buy gold bullion in November.
A month later, Mekhanikova withdrew $102,000 from an undisclosed ING bank account under her name and transferred the money into various cryptocurrency accounts.
Now appearing eligible, the couple secured a personal insolvency agreement, Ms Mahomed Ismail said.
However Mekhanikova failed to disclose the sale of her land, the gifting of money and the cryptocurrency transfers in the statement of affairs document.
Ms Mahomed Ismail said eventually the couple volunteered to vary their agreement and repay their creditors with the ATO receiving approximately $153,000.
Defence barrister Bernard Reilly instructed by Ashkan Tai Lawyers said while Mekhanikova was a co-director, the now bust Liquorcoast Pty Ltd was primarily operated by her husband.
He said her husband used Mekhanikova because of her “superior English” as an “intermediary” for his business.
“She wasn’t the mastermind behind the machinations involving the transfers,” Mr Reilly said.
“Rather she was the means through which he wanted things to be done.”
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Mr Reilly said it was her husband who came up with the suggestion to claim bankruptcy, which she originally pushed back against but eventually agreed with to “avoid marital conflict”.
The court was told Mekhanikova’s husband, the co-accused, was sentenced last year on charges related to the unpaid excise duties.
Judge Katarina Prskalo sentenced Mekhanikova to 12 months imprisonment, released forthwith on a $1000 recognisance and 18-month good behaviour bond.
Rebecca Joy McKenna and Sean Timothy Caeser plead guilty to meth possession and fake BAS fraud
A former Goodstart Early Learning and Pelicans Child Care educator has faced court charged with aggravated possession of methamphetamine, possessing MDMA and multiple counts of fraud.
Bronwyn FarrSenior Journalist@bronwyn_farr
2 min read
June 18, 2024 The Cairns Post
A former Goodstart Early Learning and Pelicans Child Care educator has faced court charged with aggravated possession of methamphetamine, possessing MDMA and multiple counts of fraud.
Rebecca Joy McKenna, 38, was charged along with Sean Timothy Caeser, 39 and appeared before Justice James Henry in Cairns Supreme Court, with a judgment published this month.
Police executed a search warrant on May 2, 2023, where McKenna was found on the lounge with a black tin containing 11.69g of meth and a number of unused clip seal bags “ubiquitous in use as deal size bags in the supply of street level drug quantities”, Justice Henry said.
He said such bags were scarcely needed for personal use.
Two lesser finds of meth were made, one in a fake battery in a cavity in a wall, and hidden behind a mirror on top of a bookshelf.
McKenna told police she bought 5.25g of meth on the internet “thinking they would be an experimental type drug to buy” but this did not explain the fact 11.6g was found in the lounge.
Justice Henry said people who lapsed into use of the highly addictive drug in adulthood did so against a background of an unaddressed psychological vulnerable or judgment-impairing event, and in McKenna’s case, there was childhood sexual abuse, but he noted she was 38 years old.
The court heard McKenna had led a law-abiding life in early adulthood and had worked at Goodstart Early Learning Forest Gardens from 2008 to 2014 and then at Pelicans Childcare Centre between 2017 and 2021.
McKenna more recently worked as a cleaner and embarked on counselling for her drug use.
Justice Henry said McKenna’s daughter and a boy she cared for would be adversely impacted by her sentencing but that was her own fault.
Caeser came before Justice Henry a year ago on an aggravated possession charge and received a 12 month intensive correction order.
Justice Henry said McKenna engaged in a “greedy, fraudulent scheme” where fake business activity statements for a non-existent business were submitted to the ATO for GST refunds eight times, obtaining a total of $109,735.
He said for both of them, “the whole enterprise was a concoction”, and noted McKenna had repaid $5442, leaving a $104,000 loss of public revenue.
Caeser had a similar scheme going, helped by someone other than McKenna, and criminally obtained more than $53,000.
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McKenna received a head sentence of three years with a parole release date of February 30, 2025 on a $500 recognisance of two years, and ordered her to repay the money.
Caeser received a head sentence of 18 months for three counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, with a parole release date of September 30, 2024, and was ordered to repay the money.