Christchurch District Court Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
- Judge called the offending "the worst of its kind" to come before the Christchurch District Court in 20 years.
- Melanie Jill Tatana failed to pay the full amounts of $1,602,864.17.
- She has been sentenced to 3 years behind bars.
The director of an asbestos removal and labour hire company has been jailed for what a judge called the "worst of its kind" tax offending.
Melanie Jill Tatana, also known as Melanie Jill Smith, was sentenced in the Christchurch District Court on 30 October and jailed for three years for what the Judge described as a case involving the wilful diversion of funds rather than business insolvency.
Tatana ran Asia Pacific Group Limited (APG), employing around 60 people and was required to deduct PAYE from workers' wages and pay it to Inland Revenue.
On 63 occasions between August 2019 and September 2022 APG failed to pay the full amounts of $1,602,864.17.
As a result, Tatana was charged with 63 counts of aiding and abetting APG to knowingly take PAYE from workers' wages and not pay it on to Inland Revenue.
An analysis of APG's bank accounts showed that more than $800,000 had been diverted for Tatana's personal use.
Further significant funds had been diverted to Tatana's personal bank account and her daughter's bank account which Tatana was also using.
Tatana was sentenced to three years behind bars.
District Court Judge Michael Crosbie said the offending was the worst of its kind to come before the Christchurch District Court in the last 20 years.
The firm also received more than $2.2 million dollars in Covid-19 wage subsidies, along with $107,500.00 in governmental resurgence support payments, between April and May 2022.
Tatana was the sole director at the time of the offending, was the signatory on the bank accounts and dealt with Inland Revenue in relation to PAYE debt.
She was given several warnings, but the non-payment continued and in May 2021 she was told APG was under investigation for failure to pay PAYE.
The judge agreed with Inland Revenue that there was a lack of remorse shown by Tatana and pointed to the need for his sentence to denounce and deter behaviour of this kind.
He also noted that if everyone had done what Tatana did, we would be in state of chaos.
