A marathon tax-fraud trial is coming to end after jurors heard more than five months of evidence linked to an alleged $13 million scam involving Sydney construction boss George Alex.
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The 53-year-old, his son Arthur Alex, 26, and four others have been on trial in the NSW Supreme Court charged with conspiring to bring a loss to the Commonwealth.
The group, which includes Mark Bryers, 66, Gordon McAndrew, 62, Pasquale Loccisano, 54, and Lindsay Kirschberg, 65, has also been hit with a money laundering charge for either conspiring to deal with or intentionally dealing with proceeds of crime worth more than $1 million.
The men have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
During opening submissions in February, crown prosecutor Chris O'Donnell SC said the six accused adopted various strategies to avoid detection as they hid more than $13 million owed to the Australian Taxation Office.
The men allegedly used second-tier "shield" companies to pay workers, only to pull those firms down once PAYG debts had been accumulated but not paid to the ATO.
After a trial that has run for more than five-and-a-half months, Justice Desmond Fagan sent the jury out on Wednesday to consider its verdicts.
He told jurors to keep calm and to listen to the opinions of others as they discussed the evidence they had seen.
"You must endeavour to keep your discussions civil, keep the temperature down," Justice Fagan said.
He told jurors to consider the cases individually against each accused instead of merging them all together as a collective.
It is expected that the deliberations will be lengthy.
Any verdicts handed down will have to be unanimous.
Australian Associated Press
