[Tax] Breach of bond leads to jail time
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
On 27 August 2026, ATO published certain tax crime prosecution case studies showing that people who deliberately cheat the tax system will be held accountable.
Breach of bond leads to jail time
A Western Australian man has been sentenced to serve a 4 month suspended jail sentence after breaching his good behaviour bond for failing to lodge his outstanding income tax returns (ITRs).
In March 2020, Robert Abreu was convicted of failing to lodge his ITRs for the years 2005 to 2019 inclusive. He was fined $15,000 and required to lodge the outstanding ITRs within 3 months.
After failing to comply with the court orders, Mr Abreu was subsequently convicted and ordered to serve a 12-month good behaviour bond. He was also required to lodge the outstanding ITRs within 5 months.
Mr Abreu again failed to comply with the requirement to lodge his outstanding returns and was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment, to be released after 2 months. He was entered into a further good behaviour bond and required to lodge his outstanding ITRs within 6 months.
After repeatedly failing to meet his court ordered obligations and submit his outstanding returns, in October 2024 Mr Abreu was sentenced to serve the remaining 4 months of his jail term immediately.
Non-lodgment cases are taken seriously and can have serious consequences. There is a big difference in falling behind then working with us to find a solution and deliberately and repeatedly doing the wrong thing.
Lawyer fails to lodge
A corporate lawyer from Western Australia has been convicted of 9 counts of failing to comply with a legal requirement under a tax law.
Mr Marcus Gracey pled guilty to failing to lodge his tax returns for 9 financial years between 2011 and 2021.
Mr Gracey only lodged his outstanding tax returns after prosecution began. These included a significant capital gain, which resulted in a substantial tax debt.
At the time of sentencing, Mr Gracey applied for no conviction to be recorded due to the risk of being dismissed by his employer. The courts rejected his application and on 11 March 2024 he was convicted of all charges and fined $10,000.
In reaching their decision, the court highlighted the importance of offences like Mr Gracey's. This is because we need to be able to properly assess and collect tax owed. The court also said that:
these offences are serious, prevalent and can be difficult to detect
there is a need to deter people from committing these offences.
The impacts of tax crime are widespread:
Receiving a criminal conviction can have a significant effect on your reputation, career prospects and ability to travel overseas.
Tax crime reduces the amount of revenue available to fund essential community services such as health, education and welfare.
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