More than a hundred hours of secret police recordings are set to play a crucial role in the trial of a group of men accused of withholding over $13 million in taxes from the government illegally.
The trial, which commenced at Sydney’s Darlinghurst Supreme Court on Monday, is expected to last six months and involve multiple alleged co-conspirators.
The defendants, George Alex, Arthur Alex, Mark Bryers, Gordon McAndrew, Pasquale Loccisano, and Lindsay Kirschberg, are charged with conspiring, along with others, to cause a loss to the Commonwealth.
Additionally, they face accusations of dealing with proceeds of crime valued at one million dollars or more, while Arthur Alex faces an additional charge of dealing with the proceeds of crime. They have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
It is alleged that between 2018 and 2020, the group used “shield” companies to withhold pay-as-you-go (PAYG) tax owed to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) while also operating legitimate labour hire companies. The Crown alleges that worker wages and entitlements were paid as normal during this time.
In an initial address to the jury, Justice Desmond Fagan, who empaneled the jury on Monday, stated that the trial is expected to include over 130 hours of police recordings taken from phone calls between the accused, as well as listening devices placed in their homes and places of work.
Crown prosecutor Chris O’Donnell SC, in his opening address, claimed that the alleged conspirators “adopted various strategies” to avoid detection.
They allegedly used second-tier “shield” companies to pay the workers, making them responsible for paying the PAYG, which provided the men with an excuse for why their primary businesses were not paying the tax.
Once the PAYG debts accumulated, the second-tier companies were allegedly dissolved.
The Crown will allege that the men “changed their plans and their strategies over time depending on who was speaking and to whom they were speaking, O’Donnell told the jury, adding that all their explanations were allegedly false.
The prosecution also alleges that construction boss George Alex led discussions on how to hide the tax fraud syndicate’s activities, which involved purchasing property and cars, from the ATO. Prosecutors claim the group used a multi-layered network of companies to pocket PAYG withholding tax from the wages and salaries of labor hire workers and office staff, totaling $13,132,083.63.
Continuing his opening address, O’Donnell claimed that George Alex “was very much in control” of the tax fraud conspiracy, as indicated by recordings captured by police.
The jury was played an excerpt of a call involving Mark Ronald Bryers, where the Crown alleges he knew about the need to hide from the ATO and wanted to understand how to achieve that.
The prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that each of the accused knew that PAYG withholding tax was not being paid to the ATO and intended for it to not be paid.
The prosecutor alleged that the conspirators retained a substantial amount of the tax fraud proceeds for personal benefit, including the purchase of an apartment on the Gold Coast and multiple cars.
Arthur Alex is further accused of dealing with $1 million or more of money and property between October 2018 and March 2020, before he is said to have joined the conspiracies, and being reckless as to it being proceeds of crime.
The jury was played an excerpt of a phone call between Bryers and McAndrew, during which Bryers expressed frustration over a garnishee letter from the ATO and the loss of $117,000, stating, “all because we couldn’t do it the f—ing right way we wanted to do it.”
O’Donnell said this incident showed the magnitude of the PAYG that should have been paid.
The prosecution’s address is expected to last four days, while each accused has their own defense barristers at the trial before Justice Desmond Fagan.
*With AAP, The Sydney Morning Herald
