Cape Town - A Vredenburg businessman who defrauded the SA Revenue Service (Sars) of millions of rand has been sentenced to three years’ house arrest with community service.
Flip Roger Lambert was also fined R256 000 by the Cape Town Regional Court following his conviction on more than a thousand counts of the contravention of the Value Added Tax Act – failing to pay VAT to Sars, failure to provide VAT 201 returns within the prescribed period to Sars and failure to pay over VAT collected to Sars.
The value of the collected VAT that was not paid over, if inflation is considered, is R17.36 million.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said Lambert received various fines or prison sentences suspended for five years, on condition that he was not convicted for the same offences during the period of the suspended sentences.
“The court imposed the house arrest sentence and fine, after finding that Lambert badly ran his business, Ocean Security, and that no money was spent on lavish gifts or overseas trips, neither was large amounts transferred nor disposed of for no good reasons.
“The VAT money was used to keep the business afloat until it collapsed.
“Lambert’s company supplied security services on the West Coast, starting in Vredenburg. He registered himself as a taxpayer in 1997, and also registered himself for VAT in the same year. He presented himself as the responsible person for VAT responsibilities.”
The magistrate informed Lambert that his age, the fact that he was a first offender and that he was paying support for several children was all that kept him out of prison.
The court accepted his version, that it was never his intention to defraud Sars, he had declared the VAT and always planned and hoped to pay it back.
Ntabazalila said the court also accepted that what on face value appeared to be questionable actions was just a business being run very badly by someone who was way over his head.
Cape Times