GLARING CASE

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10391, 7 May 1927, Page 2

GLARING CASE

INCOME TAX EVASION

WFL LINGTON, May 6. .What Mr'; Tudehope, ' for the Crown, said was the rnos t glaring case he had dealt with, came before Mr Riddell, SI.M., when Edward Reuben Benjamin Holben, of Palmerston North,, admitted 1 having unlawfully made false income tax returns for the five years ended March 31, 1926. The income returned was £3658, instead of £23,633, and the tax paid £33, when it should have been £2755. Only five informations had been laid because of the statutory limitations. Trading at Holben and Kirk, said Mr Tudehope, defendant wag in'- a large way of business as an importer and! manufacturer, and dairy engineer. He bought out bis partner, Kirk, in 1919, and from that time seemed deliberately to have set out to evade paying income tax. Counsel wished it to bo distinctly understood that Kirk was in no- way connected 1 until the defalcations. He mentioned that an investigation further back showed that in the two years preceding 1922 defendant’s income was understatedl by about £2OOO. Since 1922 defendant had deducted £5900 from income. I,(y attributing large sums to the payment of fictitious workmen. Mi- Cooper (for defendant) said he had placed large sums in a reserve account to meet anticipated liabilities, and regarded 1 this as a trust fund.

Mr Riddell: There must have been a deliberate evasion. He imposed the .maximum penalty, £IOO on each of the five charges. Costs £lO 10s were allowed.—P.A..