Tax evader fails to get out of jail

A West Auckland tax evader has failed to have his prison term swapped for home detention. / File photo

A West Auckland tax evader has failed to have his prison term swapped for home detention.

It is the second time that Clive Stephen William Bench's challenge against his jail sentence has failed.

Bench, who is in his late 50s and was declared bankrupt in April 2015, pleaded guilty a raft of charges for failing to provide information to Inland Revenue with intent to evade the assessment or payment of tax.

He also admitted three charges of providing incomplete information to IRD that allowed someone else to obtain a tax refund which he knew they weren't entitled to.

The amount of tax losses as a result of Bench's offending was almost $400,000.

Bench's lawyer, during his sentencing in the Waitakere District Court earlier this year, said that his client was under immense stress during the time of his offending as was facing civil litigation over leaky homes.

He was jailed for 19 months by Judge Belinda Pidwell.

Although that is within the limit that allows a prison term to be swapped for home detention, Judge Pidwell did not think this was appropriate due to the "level of offending" and Bench's inability to pay a meaningful reparation.

"I do not consider that home detention is the appropriate outcome for you today. It does not meet the gravity of the offending," Judge Pidwell said.

After already failing to overturn that sentence in the High Court, Bench sought permission to take a case to the Court of Appeal.

But Justice Helen Winkelmann in a decision this month said she and two of her fellow judges believed leave to appeal should be declined.

Bench's case did not raise any matter of general or public importance.

"Nor are we satisfied that there is a risk that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred in the sentencing process," Justice Winkelmann said.