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An Endeavour Hills woman was busted trying to scam taxpayers out of nearly $50k after working in debt collection at the ATO.
Hawa Akbar pleaded guilty to tax fraud after lodging a false BAS statement to the ATO, claiming a GST refund of $49,500.
An Endeavour Hills woman who was busted trying to scam the ATO out of nearly $50,000 has told a court she is “ashamed and embarrassed” by her offending.
Hawa Akbar, 26, pleaded guilty in the Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on July 4 to tax fraud after lodging a false statement with the ATO in 2022.
The court heard Akbar lodged a Business Activity Statement (BAS) with the ATO on March 7, with a net GST refund of $49,500.
For the three days after she’d lodged her claim, Akbar made several phone calls to the tax office inquiring about when she’d receive the refund.
The money landed in her account on March 16, after which she immediately spent $16,000, before the Commonwealth Bank froze her account due to suspected fraud.
After discovering her bank account had been frozen, Akbar attempted to backtrack, calling the ATO claiming she’d made “a big mistake”.
The court heard Akbar had previously worked at the ATO in debt recovery before her offending.
Akbar later told investigators she had completed the claim on her phone, which had a cracked screen.
“I thought I put $0, but I must have put $50,000 and not realised due to the crack,” she said.
After the Commonwealth Bank had frozen her account, around $30,000 was recovered for the ATO, leaving Akbar with a $19,152 debt.
The court heard Akbar’s offending was detected in a major ATO operation targeting tax fraud, which has so far identified 44,000 people committing similar offences in Australia.
The court was told Akbar had previously been employed at the ATO in the debt recovery team.
Magistrate Peter Reardon said this was “not a victimless crime”.
“The Commonwealth’s money is obtained from people who pay taxes,” he said.
She appeared in the Dandenong Court on Thursday, saying she was “embarrassed and ashamed”. Picture: Valeriu Campan
“This was a deliberate deception set up to obtain money that you are not legally entitled to.”
Akbar’s lawyer said she was “embarrassed and ashamed” by her behaviour, and felt genuine remorse for the offending.
Mr Reardon said if she had spent the entire sum of money, she’d be going to jail.
“People are struggling in our community and they are working and paying taxes legally,” he said.
“The last thing they want is people defrauding the Commonwealth.”
Akbar was sentenced with conviction to a 12-month community corrections order.
She will have to complete 200 hours of unpaid community work and to pay back the remaining $19,000 to the ATO before October 1 of this year.
