Property developer sentenced to home detention

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A former North Shore property developer who tried to rip off Inland Revenue by falsely claiming more than $30,000 in GST refunds has been sentenced to six months' home detention.

Michael Stacker, formerly known as Husain Khalil Al Saffaf, was sentenced in North Shore District Court yesterday after being found guilty at a judge-alone trial of providing misleading information.

The IRD said Stacker used the Dalal Forest Trust, which he owns, to try to obtain a GST refund of $31,537.50 more than he was entitled to.

The deception involved invoices for machinery he never bought.

In January 2011, Stacker used an agent to help him find machinery to harvest a forest he owned in Kaeo, in the Far North, Inland said.

Invoices for three of machines were prepared and made out to the Dalal Forest Trust.

Bank cheques were also made out, but the purchases never took place. Instead, Stacker re-banked the cheques into the trust's account.

Stacker then gave a copy of the invoices and bank cheques to his tax agent to claim back the GST. The tax agent then unknowingly filed the false tax returns.

Stacker was previously prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office and convicted for similar offences. In 2009, he was banned from being a company director for five years.

He was sentenced for his latest offending to six months home detention and fined $5000.

IRD acting group manager Tony Morris said Stacker was fully aware the money he was claiming in tax returns wasn't his.

"Despite knowing what he was doing was wrong, Stacker didn't stop," he said.