Sydney tax agent lands in jail for stealing client refunds

A Sydney man was today sentenced in the Parramatta Court to a one-year jail term for lodging fraudulent income tax returns on behalf of clients and stealing refunds. 

In his role as a registered tax agent from 2011 to 2015, Nigel Bradshaw lodged a number of income tax returns in which he under reported his clients’ income in order to gain larger refunds. The refunds were then funnelled through his bank account before being passed on to his unwitting clients, with Bradshaw pocketing the inflated difference.

“Taxpayers should be able to trust their registered tax professional to do the right thing when handling their tax affairs. Lodging fraudulent tax returns on behalf of clients and then stealing the tax refunds is not only a clear breach of trust, but also serious fraud,” said acting assistant commissioner David Mendoza. 

On other occasions, Bradshaw lodged correct income tax returns on behalf of his clients, but still siphoned off some refunds into his own accounts. 

Bradshaw’s activities resulted in a loss to the Commonwealth of over $80,000 and a loss to eight individual taxpayers of over $10,000. He had previously been investigated by the Tax Practitioners Board and his registration was terminated in July 2015.

Bradshaw was also ordered by the court to pay full reparations to the Commonwealth.