23 August 2024

A Porirua man was sentenced to community detention and intense supervision when he appeared in court this month.

Brendan Blair McBride appeared for sentence in the Porirua District Court on 22 August on income tax and COVID fraud as well as numerous police charges.

The Inland Revenue (IR) representative charges were for accessing a computer system with intent to obtain a pecuniary advantage. The lead charge for sentencing was a police charge of burglary.

The Inland Revenue charges

In June 2020, McBride created a myIR account using someone else’s IRD number but put his own bank account, email address and phone number on it.

He filed a 2017 income tax return seeking a nearly $3,000 refund which was declined. He tried this a couple more times with different refund amounts sought and was only ever paid out $104.71 in July 2020.

McBride also made an application for $18,700 Small Business Cashflow Scheme (SBCS) loan but no money was paid out.

McBride repeated this process with another taxpayer’s identity seeking a nearly $120,000 refund which was declined. He also used that taxpayer’s identity to apply for a $21,800 SBCS loan. The same day IR cancelled the taxpayer’s myIR ID because IR suspected identity theft.

McBride also tried a similar fraud with a third taxpayer’s account but didn’t receive any money.

The sentence details

In sentencing, Judge Harrop noted while McBride only gained $104.71 these were persistent attempts and McBride tried to get over $200,000. The judge also noted McBride was attempting to rip off society.

The ultimate sentence was one of 6 months community detention with a 9 pm – 7 am curfew and 2 years intensive supervision. He ordered reparation to IR of $104.71.

The Small Business Cashflow Scheme was set up in April 2020 to support small businesses which were adversely affected by the pandemic. It was introduced under a high trust application model to ensure small businesses could access the support quickly and easily.

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