Home detention for church Minister who stole $340,000

A South Auckland Church Minister who ripped off thousands of taxpayers' dollars has been sentenced to nearly a year in home detention.

Pio Leatisolomua, also known as Leaia Pio, from the Satauro O Le Faaolataga Samoa PIC Church in Takanini stole nearly $340,000, Inland Revenue's group manager investigations and advice Patrick Goggin said.

He was today sentenced in the Manukau District Court to 11 months home detention and 400 hours of community work after pleading guilty to four charges relating to misapplying PAYE deductions, failing to deduct PAYE, providing false information to obtain a refund and 81 representative charges of using a document to obtain a pecuniary advantage.

Leatisolomua knew what he was doing was wrong, Mr Goggin said.
"Leatisolomua deliberately chose to break the law and cheat honest taxpayers.
"We take the falsifying of records extremely seriously," he said.

Leatisolomua had the authority to sign receipts for donations made to the church. Those receipts were used to make tax credit claims and obtain refunds from Inland Revenue.
"We investigated the tax credit claims for the alleged donations, and the PAYE and GST obligations of the Church and its Minister," said Mr Goggin.

"We found taxpayers who had allegedly filed tax credit claim forms for donations to the Church had never attended the Church, had no knowledge of the tax credit claims filed using their IRD numbers or received the refunds issued by Inland Revenue as a result of these claims.

"In 2009, we visited Leatisolomua to help and explain his tax obligations for the church. However, he still avoided paying the correct PAYE and continued to file false GST returns," he said.

Leatisolomua failed to file or pay more than $140,000 in PAYE and obtained more than $40,000 in GST refunds. He also knowingly filed six false GST returns under his personal IRD number, claiming refunds totalling more than $12,000 to which he was not entitled.

"Inland Revenue trusts taxpayers to do the right thing, and most do," Mr Goggin said.

"This case is a stark reminder that cheats will be caught and held accountable. We're working hard to recover this money as it pays for hospitals and schools. It's not fair for offenders to get away with it," he said.