Tax-fraudster accountant gets parole
Barrie Skinner, the Inland Revenue Department investigator turned accountant who was handed New Zealand’s longer ever jail term for tax fraud, has been granted parole.
In his fourth appearance before the Parole Board, Skinner was freed from prison on the basis that he must comply with a series of special conditions.
These include that he not be involved in the handling of money, give financial advice or be engaged in the running of a business without getting consent.
Skinner and his former business partner, David Rowley, were jailed in 2012 following a six-week trial in the Wellington High Court.
The pair were found guilty of dozens of charges of fraud, tax evasion and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Skinner, jailed for 81⁄ years by Justice Stephen Kos, was given a slightly longer sentence than his co-accused because, unlike Rowley, he enjoyed the ‘‘high life’’ on the proceeds of his crime.
Now 57, Skinner became eligible for parole in 2015, but he was denied by the Parole Board after each of his first three appearances. In 2016 a report by his probation officer showed ‘‘a breathtaking lack of insight’’ into his offending,’’ an earlier Parole Board decision said.
A year later the Parole Board again found he posed an ‘‘undue risk to the safety of the community’’ as he ‘‘still does not fully accept responsibility for his offending’’.
Now engaged in work while on day release, the Parole Board ruled that in the right circumstances, the risk posed by freeing Skinner could be minimised.
‘‘[I]t appears to the Board that if his employment is monitored closely he would not be in a position to commit such offences again.’’
While the decision does not reveal where Skinner will work when he is released, his suggestion that he would be a project manager on a building project raised ‘‘significant concerns’’ and was rejected.
Skinner and Rowley, principals of Tax Planning Services, used fictitious invoices to help a string of businesses illegally lower their tax bills.