Timothy Pratten arrives at the Supreme Court / Pic: John Grainger Source: The Daily Telegraph
PROSECUTORS have asked for the maximum sentence for a millionaire tax fraudster who evaded up to $5 million in tax by squirreling away his assets in a tropical tax haven.
In the Supreme Court yesterday, Crown Prosecutor Michael Wigney, SC, asked that Tim Pratten be given "a significant custodial sentence" - similar to that given to Pratten's Vanuatu accountant Robert Agius.
"(Pratten's) conduct in this matter is close to the worst-case category, and calls for a penalty close to the maximum provided by law," according to written submissions by the Crown Prosecutor.
The maximum sentence is 10 years. Agius was last year given a head sentence of nine years and a non-parole period of 7 1/2 years.
Pratten, who ran an aircraft and marine insurance business in North Sydney, was arrested by police in September 2010.
In June last year a jury found him guilty of seven counts of tax fraud, but Pratten still refuses to admit he committed a crime.
Mr Wigney told the court Pratten had shown no contrition or remorse, and had shown he is willing to tell "direct and repeated lies in futherance of the fraud".
When authorities were closing in on the pair, but before their arrest, Agius and Pratten were caught on phone taps discussing plans to create a paper trail to make it appear that Pratten's luxury lifestyle was financed by legitimate loans from Vanuatu, which would be legal, the court heard.
In reality, Pratten was receiving cash from companies and trusts he controlled that were registered in the tax-haven of Vanuatu.
He used the cash to buy himself status symbols and toys he used in Sydney, while telling the Australian Tax Office he only earned $75,000 a year - and had no assets except for a car.
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