The daughter of a former tax office deputy commissioner who took part in a $105million fraud conspiracy mocked unwitting puppets in the scheme as ‘maniacs’ and ‘crazy’ in secret recordings.
Lauren Cranston knew that straw directors used in the Plutus Payroll conspiracy – one of Australia’s biggest frauds – had various drug and mental health issues while she was actively taking part in it.
Cranston, who still does not believe she did anything wrong, was jailed for at least five years on Monday after a mammoth trial beginning in April last year in the NSW Supreme Court.
Justice Anthony Payne found the 30-year-old was a ‘trusted participant’ in the plot and acted out of misguided loyalty to her older brother, Adam.
The daughter of a former tax office deputy commissioner who took part in a $105million fraud mocked unwitting puppets in the scheme as ‘maniacs’ and ‘crazy’. Lauren Cranston (above) knew that straw directors used in the conspiracy had various drug and mental health issues
Cranston was found guilty in March of conspiring with four others including her sibling Adam to cause a loss to the Commonwealth and dealing with the proceeds of crime.
Under the conspiracy legitimate clients, attracted by Plutus Payroll’s lack of service fees, sent money to the company to pay wages, taxes and superannuation.
The funds were then funnelled through second-tier companies with straw directors who were ‘unsophisticated and vulnerable people’ and did not understand what was going on.
More than $141million was put through the scheme, siphoning about $105million that should have been paid to the Australian Tax Office.
Justice Payne said Cranston was secretly recorded talking about the straw directors in conversations which made clear she knew they had no knowledge of the daily operations of the companies.
‘In numerous conversations, Ms Cranston volunteers her opinion about them, including that they are “maniacs” and “crazy”,’ Justice Payne said in his judgement.
Cranston was found guilty in March of conspiring with four others including her older brother Adam Cranston (above) to cause a loss to the Commonwealth and dealing with the proceeds of crime
Cranston was recorded calling a straw director ‘stupid’ and joking about her being on a ‘bender’. A co-conspirator then asked Cranston how one of the principals had located such dupes, who she described as ‘druggies’.
‘I’ve got no f***king idea,’ Cranston responded.
When another co-conspirator called a straw director ‘retarded and ‘illiterate’, Cranston said: ‘Yeah, right. Oh my god. Where did we find him?’
The Cranston siblings are the children of former tax office deputy commissioner Michael Cranston, who had no knowledge of the fraud and was never involved in any wrongdoing.
The Plutus Payroll conspiracy was hatched in meetings at ‘gentlemen’s clubs’, which Cranston was not aware of and did not participate in, Justice Payne found.
Lauren and Adam Cranston were arrested in May 2017 after a lengthy Australian Federal Police operation. Adam Cranston used the money he took to fund a lavish lifestyle. Some of the cash seized by cops is pictured
While she was not involved in the initial planning stages, Cranston remained knowingly involved in the conspiracy from at least February 2015 as a ‘trusted participant’, the judge said.
Cranston 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.
She had not shown any remorse.
‘The offender still appears to believe that she and her co-conspirators have done nothing wrong,’ Justice Payne said.
‘… There was no acknowledgement by Ms Cranston, or on her behalf, that any crime had been committed here, by anybody, much less that she was contrite… .’
Items including jewellery and cash seized by police who arrested the Cranston siblings are displayed at a press conference at AFP headquarters in Sydney
Cranston’s barrister Troy Anderson SC had submitted his client was ‘young, unsophisticated and lacking in curiosity’, Justice Payne said.
‘While Ms Cranston acted on instructions, I find that at all relevant times she understood the mechanics of the second-nd tier companies’ accounts,’ he found.
‘Ms Cranston knew that she had a central role in facilitating the tax fraud and money laundering conspiracies.’
Justice Payne said the fraud was not a victimless crime.
‘The non-payment of over $100million in tax occurred in the years immediately prior to the pandemic,’ he said.
‘During that period, the calls on services supplied by government were as urgent as they have been at any time since the Great Depression.
‘The loss of over $100 million which would otherwise have been available to fund government services is a very significant injury suffered by all Australians.’
Cranston, who received a maximum prison term of eight years, will be eligible for parole in March 2028.