FALSE RETURNS OF INCOME

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27213, 3 December 1953, Page 8

FALSE RETURNS OF INCOME

DEFENDANT FINED £4O (New Zealand Press Association) GISBORNE, December 1. Fines totalling £4O were imposed on a cabinetmaker, Reginald Cosmo Maitland Humphreys, when he appeared before Mr E. L. Walton, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court today and pleaded guilty to eight charges of wilfully making false returns of income. Humphreys was charged individually with making false returns for the years ended March 31, 1944, and March, 1945, trading as Reg. Humphreys, Ltd., with making false returns for the years 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, and 1951. Prosecuting, Mr Thorp said the false returns would be made for the benefit of Humphreys, whether they were made for the defendant personally or for the company. The estimated shortage in the figure supplied was £3730 Us Bd. The defendant had been taking small sums from the business, and had been lodging this money in accounts of which his accountant had no knowledge. The taxation evaded by Humphreys personally was £427, and by Reg. Humphreys,’ Ltd., £ll5O. For the defendant, Mr Woodward said that the part of the income not returned had been small sums lodged in the post office and in national savings. Tax had been paid on the interest accruing from these sums. The amount of tax outstanding had been paid. The manner in which the sums had been deposited did not suggest any wilful evasion by the defendant.