The daughter of a former tax office deputy commissioner who was a “trusted participant” in one of Australia’s biggest fraud conspiracies has been jailed for at least five years.
Lauren Cranston, 30, still does not believe she has done anything wrong, Justice Anthony Payne said, handing down her eight-year sentence in the NSW supreme court on Monday for her role in the Plutus Payroll conspiracy.
She will be eligible for parole in March 2028 with a five-year non-parole period.
Cranston was found guilty in March of conspiring to cause a loss to the commonwealth and dealing with the proceeds of crime worth more than $1m alongside four others, including her older brother Adam Cranston, after a mammoth trial beginning in April 2022.
Legitimate clients, attracted by its lack of service fees, sent money to Plutus Payroll to pay wages, taxes and super.
Instead, the money was funnelled through second-tier companies directed by “unsophisticated and vulnerable people” who did not understand them, Payne said on Monday.
More than $141m was funnelled through the scheme, siphoning more than $105m that should have been paid to the tax office.
It was not a victimless crime, Payne said, coming in the years preceding the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The loss of over $100m which would have otherwise been available to fund government services is a very significant injury suffered by all Australians,” he said.
The conspiracy was hatched in meetings at “gentlemen’s clubs”, which Cranston was not aware of and did not participate in.
While she was not involved in the initial planning stages, she remained knowingly involved in the conspiracy from at least February 2015 as a “trusted participant”, the judge said.
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She acted on instructions, but understood the mechanics and knew she had a central role in facilitating the money laundering and tax fraud conspiracies, which she also took efforts to conceal.
By the time authorities were listening in, she was showing her knowledge of the scheme’s history.
“At least we are actually paying some taxes,” Cranston was recorded saying.
Cranston gained about $182,000, primarily participating at the bottom of the conspiracy’s hierarchy out of misguided loyalty to her older brother, the judge said. However, she has not shown any contrition.
“The offender still appears to believe that she and her co-conspirators have done nothing wrong,” the judge said.
Cranston appeared in court via audiovisual link, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her green prison jumper as Payne delivered his sentencing remarks before sobbing as the judge left the bench.
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