Pukekohe woman Haitelenisia Kaumavae sentenced to home detention for $1.5m tax evasion

A Pukekohe woman has been given nine months home detention for evading nearly $1.5 million in tax.

A Pukekohe woman who supplied local growers with pickers has been sentenced to home detention for evading nearly $1.5 million in tax.

Haitelenisia Kaumavae appeared in Pukekohe District Court after having pleaded guilty to four charges of tax evasion for aiding and abetting her company M & H Kaumavae Ltd.

The business supplied workers to harvest fruit and vegetables for growers.

Returns filed by defence counsel in November discovered that just under $1.5m in GST, PAYE and income tax was evaded by Kumavae.

The income tax files were not filed for four consecutive years, GST returns were either not filed or false returns were filed over a three-year period and PAYE returns weren’t filed for just over three years.

Her offending was described in court as repetitive and pre-meditated.

Inland Revenue told the court that this case was a wilful example of repeated fraud and deprived the public of a substantial sum of money.

A review of the bank accounts showed invoices were issued by the company to growers which charged for the labour of others and included a deduction of 15% withholding tax and were inclusive of GST.

The judge said that Kaumavae didn’t gain any personal profit from this due to her cultural obligations, but did acknowledge that it was serious offending.

She was sentenced to nine months’ home detention with six months’ post-detention conditions and reparation of $6500.

Earlier, a Southland woman whose company provided school lunches was sentenced to nearly a year’s home detention after evading taxes for three years.

Debra Lee Monteith was the sole director of Lee 19 Limited, a company that provided school lunches.

It was found that over $800,000 was unaccounted for between March 2021 and February 2024 and that Monteith benefited by just over $300,000 between these years.

She was sentenced to 11 months’ home detention in the Invercargill District Court in June.