Sheep Farmer Sent To Jail For Massive Gst Fraud
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday June 18, 2002
A Cooma sheep farmer who executed Australia's first major GST fraud was sentenced yesterday to four years in jail.
David Charles Delhunty, 50, pleaded guilty in Wollongong District Court to six charges of defrauding the Commonwealth.
The sophisticated sting netted him more than half a million dollars over a seven-month period.
Delhunty admitted devising the scam using tax file numbers he found stored on an ex-government computer.
It saw him open 37 false bank accounts, register for 26 fake Australian Business Numbers, and lease post office boxes in 29 towns in the ACT and NSW.
Using personal details of legitimate taxpayers discovered on the hard disc of a second-hand computer he bought in Canberra, Delhunty set up six fictitious businesses for which he fraudulently obtained $515,276 over a seven-month period in 2000 and 2001.
Before federal police officers caught up with him he drove thousands of kilometres, donning false beards, sunglasses and hats to disguise himself while collecting his illegal earnings from automatic teller machines throughout NSW and the ACT.
He told the court he buried $400,000 of the money in a tin on his sheep farm and invested the rest.
Sentencing him yesterday, Judge Joe Phelan took into account the fact that all the proceeds of the fraud had since been repaid.
He also noted Delhunty's remorse and the intense pressure brought to bear by his de facto wife who had demanded he find a more reliable income than that afforded by the wool market when she became pregnant.
Judge Phelan said Delhunty came from a dysfunctional family with a history of depression.
He sentenced him to two years on the first two charges, a further two years on the second two charges, and fined him $5000 on each of the last two charges.
A non-parole period of 22 months backdated to take into account time already spent in custody means Delhunty will be eligible for release on March 26, 2004.
Judge Phelan recommended he serve his time in a low-security facility close to Canberra and that his psychological reports be sent on to the prison.
© 2002 Illawarra Mercury
