R v Rowley

In R v Rowley, the defendants, David Ingram Rowley and Barrie James Skinner, were charged with multiple counts of dishonest use of documents to obtain a pecuniary advantage, perverting the course of justice, and knowingly providing false information to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue. The defendants, both accountants and tax agents, were accused of orchestrating a scheme involving the issuance of false invoices to their clients, which enabled the clients to claim deductions and input credits in their income tax and GST returns. The scheme allegedly resulted in a benefit to the clients and personal financial gain for the defendants. The trial was conducted as a judge-alone trial, with the judge considering the evidence presented by both the prosecution and the defense. The judge found the defendants guilty on 80 out of 89 counts of dishonest use, all seven counts of perverting the course of justice, and five counts of knowingly providing false information. The judge concluded that the defendants had indeed devised a fraudulent scheme, which involved issuing false invoices to clients and facilitating false claims in tax returns, resulting in significant financial benefits to both the clients and the defendants. The judge also found that the defendants had attempted to pervert the course of justice by providing false information to their clients to deflect the Revenue investigation. Finally, the judge determined that the defendants' personal tax returns were false as they failed to declare the income obtained from their fraudulent activities.