The District Court of South Australia has sentenced a South Australian man to 10 years in jail for wrongly obtaining more than $3.8 million by creating fake transport businesses and lodging false rebate claims for fuel.
Between 2002 and 2006, Mr Reginald Roberts, who already operated trucking businesses in South Australia, created 3 additional companies — Double R Logistics, Inter Link Freight Services, and Phillip Williams Pty Ltd. He used false identities and lodged 75 fraudulent claims for more than 20 million litres of fuel, with no evidence that it was ever purchased or used under the Diesel and Alternative Fuels Grants Scheme and the Energy Grants Credit Scheme, which were designed to allow heavy road transport businesses to claim back 18.51 cents per litre of fuel used.
Following investigation, it was found that no trucks were registered to the businesses at the time, and searches at Mr Roberts’s home and business found no business records.
The Diesel and Alternative Fuel Grants Scheme and the Energy Grants Credit Scheme ran from 2000 to 2003, and 2003 to 2006 respectively before being replaced by fuel tax credits. This scheme provides eligible businesses with a credit for the fuel tax that’s included in the price of fuel used in machinery, plant, equipment, heavy vehicles and light vehicles travelling off public or private roads.
Source: ATO, Fraudulent rebate claims fuel 10 more years in jail for SA man, [media release], 15 July 2021, accessed 15 July 2021.
