Bad look in spotlight

A DEPUTY tax commissioner’s daughter allegedly said “that looks so f…ing bad” as she discussed how to keep money flowing through one of the most lucrative fraud operations in Australian history.

Lauren Cranston (above) and her friend Devyn Hammond are jointly accused of account keeping for the alleged $165 million Plutus Payroll crime syndicate.

Australian Federal Police claim the two women managed a critical function of the scheme, ensuring that not all of the required income tax was paid to the Australian Taxation Office – where Cranston’s father Michael Cranston was deputy commissioner. On January 4 in a conversation recorded by police, Lauren Cranston allegedly told Hammond she was going to “drop the tax back to 60 per cent and not do 70 per cent any more” to which Hammond responded “well at least we’re making that”.

Both women were arrested along with Lauren’s brother Adam Cranston and four other co-conspirators in AFP raids last week and charged with conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth.

Michael Cranston was given a court attendance notice to face a charge of abusing his position as a public official.