Nelson man, Simon James Moir Hedley, has been sentenced to two years and three month of jail time for tax evasion.

The Nelson based resource management and coastal marine consultant was ordered to pay $113,113.31 to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and sentenced to jail time. He entered a guilty plea to the twenty charges against him. Charges were all of a tax fraud nature, ranging from providing false information to making false claims in relation to refunds and tax payments.

Simon James Moir Hedley registered his business in 2003 and has since been under some form of investigation from the IRD due to discrepancies that have arisen in his returns. When request were made for verified and truthful documentation to explain these, fictitious correspondences and evidence of work were provided. This amounted to $52,071.83 of returns fraud, part of his required payment to the IRD. The rest of the amount comes from interest charged.

The IRD voiced understandable concern with this situation.