Cape Town - A lawyer charged with 463 contraventions of the Income Tax Act and VAT received a R200000 fine and a five-year suspended sentence.
Muhammed Rashad Khan, 70, pleaded guilty to the charges in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court.
Magistrate Vusi Mhlanga said the court had considered correctional supervision along with other forms of sentences.
It found that correctional supervision might not be appropriate because Khan’s personal circumstances
were in the court’s view, “not
fully investigated”.
“The report also did not look
into whether Khan was a primary caregiver to his minor children and whether his wife was employed,” Mhlanga said.
“Consequently, the sentence of a fine seemed to be the only appropriate sentence.
“While these offences in which
the accused has been convicted of remain serious, this court is mindful of the fact that an accused should not be sacrificed in the altar of
crime deterrence,” the magistrate added.
The charges related to failure to submit his VAT 201 returns for April 2006 to April 2015 timeously; failure to pay the amount of employees’ tax withheld from his employees; failure to pay the levy as required by Section 7 of the Skills Development Act; and failure to pay the employees’ contributions to the Commissioner as he was required in Section 1 of the Unemployment Insurance
Contributions, Act 4 of 2002 which was due on February 7, 2014 to the Commissioner for the South African Revenue Service.
Mhlanga added: “These serious offences were perpetrated over a long period.
“The society expects that people convicted of these offences should be punished because of the impact these offences have on the authorities’ rendering of services to
communities.”