Plasterer sentenced over $125k in wage subsidy claims made with false employee lists
The court was told Deva Brown Phuhathakarn lodged 23 applications, filed PAYE returns to bolster them, and was paid on nine; MSD says prosecutions continue and repayments have topped $830m.
An Avondale plasterer has been sentenced in the Waitakere District Court after admitting he used false documents to obtain wage subsidies.
Deva Brown Phuhathakarn pleaded guilty to two representative charges of using a document. The charges covered 23 applications he made to the Wage Subsidy Scheme between March 2020 and March 2021, under his own name and via his company, Complete Plastering Solutions Limited.
MSD said nine of those applications were paid, totalling $125,103.20. Fourteen further applications worth $33,976.40 were declined.
Some applications included lists of supposed full-time employees who did not work for the business. Around the time he submitted the applications, Phuhathakarn also filed PAYE returns with Inland Revenue for multiple people named in the subsidy claims, which MSD says gave the applications an air of legitimacy.
Judge Andrée Wiltens said the offending was deliberate and sustained, and cheated the system. The court gave credit for guilty pleas but found no other mitigations in reaching the final sentence. MSD’s release did not state the specific penalty imposed.
MSD says 53 people have been sentenced in wage subsidy cases to date, with another 51 before the courts. Since the scheme began, more than $830 million has been repaid as at 14 October.
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