A Tauranga woman who created an elaborate scheme to falsely claim more than $3 million in tax refunds and tax credits has been jailed.
In the District Court in Tauranga today Karina Charmaine Knedler, 31, was sentenced to prison for three years and seven months.
Knedler was sentenced on 19 charges including using a document with intent to obtain a pecuniary advantage, obtaining by deception and using forged documents.
The charges mostly related to false GST refund claims for several fictitious businesses that never actually traded.
Inland Revenue group manager of investigations and advice Patrick Goggin said Knedler created an extremely complex scheme to rip off taxpayers.
From 2014 to 2016, Knedler filed faIse GST returns on behalf of Fitonez Limited, claiming a refund was due.
In total, 21 fraudulent GST returns were filed, and the defendant provided forged invoices and bank statements to support the claims.
Some of the refund claims related to fictitious property transactions in the millions of dollars.
Mr Goggin said Knedler was "quite relentless in her pursuit of money to which she wasn't entitled."