Man posing as tax agent sent to jail

Pranesh Nandan defrauded the IRD and spent the money on travel and flash cars. Photo / File

A man posing as a tax agent has been sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud and theft totalling nearly $1 million.

Pranesh Nandan established Manukau-based Nesh and Jay's Accounting Professionals Limited in 2013 despite having no accounting qualifications, according to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).

"Over a three-year period he filed 68 false GST returns on behalf of his clients and entities he controlled. The returns contained significantly inflated expenses, resulting in refunds of $652,064 being paid into accounts he controlled," the IRD said.

Nandan, who mainly generated clients through social media advertising, also helped himself to $285,306 that clients had put into the company's accounts to pay tax.

The total amount of money defrauded from IRD was $937,370.

IRD investigations and advice group manager Patrick Goggin said Nandan was an "opportunist fraudster who thought he could cheat the tax system by playing on his clients' trustworthy nature".

"Mr Nandan came up with a devious plan to rip off honest New Zealand taxpayers and his clients, and then spent nearly a million dollars on overseas travel and flash European cars," he said.

"His clients were completely unaware he was making these false claims on their behalf or that his claim to be a chartered accountant was a lie."

When confronted by IRD, Nandan admitted he had made up the figures in false returns.

"We take this sort of offending extremely seriously and the public should be assured that tax cheats won't get away with stealing money that would normally go towards funding vital services such as hospitals, schools and roads," Goggin said.