Phillip Smith adds tax cheat to list of crimes
Murderer-molester stole 50k from taxman while behind bars.
Following yesterday’s arrest of child-abusing killer Phillip Smith at a youth hostel in Rio de Janeiro, Inland Revenue has revealed he’d ripped off the tax system to the tune of $47,565 – while serving time at Waikato’s Spring Hill prison.
The IRD took a successful prosecution against Mr Smith two years ago on 12 charges of obtaining by deception, and as a result an additional 15 months was added to the life sentence he received in 1996 for stabbing to death the father of a boy he’d been sexually abusing for several years.
Mr Smith’s tax rort involved claiming Working for Families credits, as well as student loan and income tax refunds, on behalf of others.
The nearly $50,000 he fraudulently claimed could not be traced by the IRD. Instead, he was required to pay $50 a week in reparations.
That wasn’t Mr Smith’s only money-making scheme while in prison.
For several years from 2008 he also operated importation business WSE Marketing, which traded in Chinese electronics sourced from Hong Kong, without Corrections officials’ knowledge.
When it was discovered Mr Smith was running the legally incorporated company from behind bars, it was realised there were no rules in place to prevent him from doing so.
The law was subsequently changed in 2011 so that prisoners now require permission to run businesses from prison, and Mr Smith was denied permission to continue doing so.
Prior to yesterday’s admission by the IRD, it was assumed it was money earned from his WSE Marketing activities that financed Mr Smith’s escape from New Zealand, including the $10,200 in cash he declared to Customs as he departed Auckland Airport.
Now it seems there’s every likelihood it was essentially a taxpayer-funded trip.
Mr Smith is currently being held by Brazilian authorities and his New Zealand lawyer, Tony Ellis, expects him to be deported from the country on the basis that his NZ passport has been cancelled, which makes his presence in Brazil illegal.
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Phillip Smith adds tax cheat to list of crimes
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