The High Court has overturned a Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal decision and cancelled the saleperson's licence of an agent convicted of tax fraud.
The decision arose after a a real estate agent (both the agent and the company she worked for have permanent name suppression) was convicted of abetting a company to apply PAYE deductions for a purpose other than payment to Inland Revenue, plus five charges of abetting the same company to fail to file GST returns.
According to the High Court Judgment, the offending occurred between October 2013 and October 2015 and involved $233,866 in unpaid tax.
The Judgment said that over the same period the agent spent approximately $278,000 on online gambling.
In August 2016 she was sentenced to five months community detention and 200 hours community work and ordered to pay reparations of $233,866.
In August 2016 the agent applied to the Real Estate Agents Authority (the Authority) to renew her saleperson's licence, but that was declined on the basis that she was not a fit and proper person to hold a licence.
The agent then applied to the Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal (the Tribunal) for a review of that decision.
The Tribunal decided in the agent's favour and reinstated her salesperson's licence, but the Authority then appealed that decision to the High Court.
In a decision released yesterday (28 November) the High Court sided with the Authority, overturned the Tribunal's decision and reinstated the Authority's decision to cancel the agent's licence.
The Judgment also noted that the Authority would normally be entitled to costs, but if no agreement on this could be reached with the other parties, the Authority should apply to the High Court for an order on costs.
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