TAX FRAUD ADMITTED

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28895, 15 May 1959, Page 12

TAX FRAUD ADMITTED

Inland Revenue Official Fined

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 14. A tax officer, Alfred Douglas Newton, admitted three charges in the Magistrate’s Court at Auckland today of aiding and abetting a scheme to mislead the Commissioner of Inland Revenue. He was fined £22 10s. Newton was one of several men who paid over money and had their tax assessments altered to a lower figure by an Inland Revenue officer who thought out the scheme, the Court was told. The officer was later convicted and was serving two years’ gaol for conspiracy and forgery. While admitting Newton’s implication, Mr W. J. Spring said the officer was looking for dupes and Newton was one who “fell in.” “He may be a fool, but he was not a knave,” said Mr Spring. Mr J. W. Kealy, S.M., who fined Newton £7 10s on each charge, said he refused to accept that Newton believed he was paying for a normal and proper transaction. James Brian Ward, seaman, said by the Inland Revenue prosecutor (Mr H. Rosen) to have also been implicated, admitted a charge of wilfully making a false return of income and was fined £l5. The Court was told that Ward’s tax was reassessed because the words “off work for six months” were written into his file. Ward told the Magistrate that he had not known the extent to which the officer helped him.