Dubbo's Steven Dumbrell, 33, guilty of deceiving the Australian Taxation Office

The 33-year-old, of Heather Street, Dubbo, pleaded guilty to making a false/misleading statement to a taxation officer and kept a misleading/deceptive record with the intention to deceive and mislead, in Dubbo Local Court on Wednesday, October 11.

Documents tendered to the court showed Dumbrell lodged his 2017 to 2018 income tax return on July 10, 2018 with a number of inaccurate records.

In his tax return, Dumbrell reported $1027.65 as a deduction for attending first aid training with Vital First Aid Training Services.

He also lodged a $1865.15 as a deduction for work-related clothing expenses for The Essential Ingredient Newcastle.

For another deduction, Dumbrell reported $10,250 for work related self-education expenses with Barrington Training Services.

He also provided a false offer of employment letter from the general manager of Duke of Wellington Hotel, dated September 6, 2016 to explain his work related expenses.

In total, Dumbrell put in work related deductions for:

This resulted in a $5809.02 refund, however it never landed in Dumbrell's account.

Between July 11, 2018 and August 22, 2018, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) conducted an audit of Dumbrell's 2018 return.

Dumbrell was asked to provide documents that supported his deductions.

On July 12, Dumbrell provided a receipt dated March 26, 2018 from Vital First Aid and a receipt from The Essential Ingredient Newcastle dated May 30, 2018.

On July 19, he provided the letter of employment and an undated receipt for Barrington Training Services for $5230.

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On November 2, 2018 the ATO started an investigation, where they worked with a third party to determine whether the documents provided were genuine.

The third party found the receipts from Vital First Aid, Essential Ingredient Newcastle and Barrington Training Services were all false. It was also determined the general manager of the Duke of Wellington Hotel did not write or sign an offer of employment letter.

The false statements made by Dumbrell resulted in a taxation shortfall of $6138.34.

Magistrate Garry Wilson said these types of matters were "rare and far between" in Dubbo Local Court.

ATO prosecutor Ross Tomlin said Dumbrell didn't receive any benefits because an auditor suppressed them.

"He is already in considerable debt to the ATO," Mr Tomlin said.

Dumbrell, who was representing himself, told the court in early 2018 his father was killed in a hit and run accident.

"I made some reckless decisions, I had to use my savings to pay for a funeral and I wanted to make sure my siblings didn't go without," he said.

"It was frankly a stupid mistake."

"A mistake?" Mr Wilson asked.

"An intentional mistake," Dumbrell said.

Mr Tomlin told the court that since the COVID-19 pandemic started cases, such as this one, were increasing.

"This is very serious in my mind," he said.

Mr Wilson said he took in all the circumstances at the time of the offending.

"It was an intentional act by you and contrary to the relevant legislation you tried to get benefits which led to these offences being laid," he said.

Dumbrell was fined $4500 and ordered to pay $2000 to the Taxation Office.

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