FALSE RETURNS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26175, 11 June 1946, Page 4

FALSE RETURNS

BOOKMAKER’S DEFENCE A GENUINE DELUSION FINES OF £75 IMPOSED (P.A.) WANGANUI, June 10. Ignorance of his liability to submit correct returns of income received from bookmaking or betting was pleaded in the Magistrate’s Court today by a defendant seeking leniency. Thomas Stanley Leathern, a tobacconist and hairdresser, appeared before Mr J. H. Salmon, S.M., charged with negligently, or, alternatively, with wilfully failing to submit correct returns of income for the years ended March 31, 1942, 1944, and 1945.' Four of the informations were withdrawn finally by the Crown, for whom Mr N. R. Bain apDeared, and the defendant was fined £25 for negligently failing to submit a return in 1942 and £SO for a similar offence in 1944. Costs amounted to seven guineas, and the defendant was allowed three months in which to pay. “The defendant carried on business as a tobacconist, and also as a bookmaker,” said Mr Bain. “No records were available regarding the profits made by the defendant from bookmaking, but an assessment of his income was made after an inspection of his bank passbooks. When the defendant was notified that his books were to be examined by an income tax inspector he withdrew £3OOO from the bank the day before the inspector’s visit.” ■ Mr W. R. Brown (counsel for the defendant): We object to any suggestion that a sum was withdrawn for any improper purpose. It is not denied that the defendant omitted to submit' a return of his income from bookmaking. Mr Brown said that the defendant was under a genuine delusion that his income from bookmaking and betting was not taxable.

The magistrate: The legislation makes no difference between the negligent or wilful submissions of false returns. The penalty is the same. Mr Brown: The whole point of the defence is the state of the defendant’s mind on the subject. The magistrate: If he was straightforward enough to bank all his winnings. that indicates that he committed the offence negligently. By banking everything he put himself in the hands of the* department. The charges of wilfully submitting false returns were thereupon withdrawn and the defendant was fined as stated.