IRD fraud plan secret to prevent copycats

A man could not admit his business was in trouble, so he came up with an identity fraud scheme to get thousands from the Inland Revenue Department.

Oliver Piers Phillips, 24, of Rangiora, was sent to jail for a year yesterday, but his method of offending will remain secret. The police and the Crown have been granted suppression orders at his court appearances to prevent copycat offending.

Phillips is a fulltime university student who was granted leave to apply for home detention by Christchurch District Court Judge Michael Crosbie.

However, the normal delay in handling the application will almost certainly mean he will sit his end-of-year examinations at the prison.

Phillips had pleaded guilty to 15 charges of altering documents, dishonestly using documents, and obtaining payment by deception.

He claimed IRD refunds of $20,000 and received $8000. He has been the secretary and treasurer of the Head Start Charitable Trust which solicited for money on the streets and held seminars and counselling sessions.

Defence counsel Stephen Hembrow said Phillips was "distressed, fearful, and ashamed" and had paid the $8037 back to IRD and attended a restorative justice conference.

"He has done everything he possibly can to put it right.

"He got himself into a situation where he had made out he was quite successful when in fact he was impecunious. He didn't have the gumption to front up to friends and family and explain his true financial position, and he dreamed up this scheme."

Judge Crosbie said the motive for the offending was "little more than vanity. This is not a case of a desperate beneficiary from Struggle Street who offends because he can't make ends meet".

Prosecutor Ruth Thomas said the Crown sought a prison term as a deterrent because of the growing number of identity crimes here and overseas.

Judge Crosbie imposed a year's jail, granted leave for home detention, but refused to defer the start of the prison term so that Phillips could remain at university until exams were finished.

- NZPA