A husband and wife serving home detention on charges of avoiding more than $200,000 in taxes had earlier been declared bankrupt, owing the Inland Revenue Department more than $750,000.
Carol Karl, 51, and Andrew Karl, 43, were found guilty by a jury in the Whangarei District Court in November last year and appeared for sentencing yesterday.
Carol Karl faced one charge of evading assessment or payment of income tax, one of evading assessment or payment of GST and another of evading payment of tax. The offences occurred between April 2006 and April 2015. Andrew Karl faced similar charges, relating to offending between April 2010 and April 2015.
Crown solicitor Mike Smith informed the court yesterday bankruptcy orders were filed in October 2014 and both were declared bankrupt by the High Court on December 15 that year. Carol Karl owed more than $470,000 in tax arrears while her husband owed more than $300,000, Mr Smith said.
He said if the court was minded to impose a non-custodial sentence, community work should be ordered which would go some way towards them paying back to the New Zealand public in terms of tax evasion. Both were among five people who traded under the name Nga Uri o Tupoto which, according to the IRD, received just over $3.6 million in its bank account during the period they did not pay taxes.