Dishonest driver fails in bid to overturn SMSF trustee ban
A Tasmanian man who conspired with his wife and sister to avoid being banned from driving has failed in his bid to overturn his qualification from running a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF).
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia heard that Stuart Shaw, who was a trustee of the S and J Superannuation Fund, had accumulated excessive demerit points over a two-year period in August 2008, and elected to be of good behaviour for 12 months to avoid facing a suspension of his licence.
As part of the undertaking Shaw's licence would be suspended if he committed an offence for which two or more demerit points were recorded during the following 12 months. However, five days before making the undertaking Shaw's car was recorded traveling at "excessive speed", and he conspired with his wife to falsely declare she was driving the vehicle at the time, to avoid a suspension.
Just 12 days after that, Shaw was again recorded speeding, this time he conspired with his sister to falsely declare that she was driving the car at the time.
In June 2012, Shaw was convicted by the Supreme Court of Tasmania of five counts of conspiracy contrary to section 297(1)(d) of the Criminal Code Act 1924 (Tasmania) and became a disqualified person pursuant to section 120(1)(a)(i) of the SIS Act.
Shaw resigned as a trustee of the S and J Superannuation Fund in May 2013, despite having being advised by the Commissioner for Taxation on several occasions, following his conviction for dishonesty.
The Tribunal also heard that in September 2008 the Commissioner of Taxation audited the Shaw's SMSF, and found that it had contravened "various provisions of the SIS Act", with trustees of the fund acquiring and maintaining in-house assets of greater than five per cent of the fund's total assets.
Shaw contended that the contraventions had occurred because of bad advice from the fund's auditor for the 2001/2 to 2004/5 income years.
AUTHOR
Nicholas O'Donoghue
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