A former federal public servant who embezzled more than $1 million in a "sophisticated" tax fraud scheme was sentenced to three years jail in the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday.
The 34-year-old man, Rishi Khandelwal, who worked at Food Standards Australia New Zealand at the time he committed the crimes, was sentenced to three years, two months jail over 302 fraud charges and denied bail.
![A Canberra man has been sentenced to three years' jail for fraud.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170622145801im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/f/q/q/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwwhrg.png/1498122609947.jpg)
Khandelwal had used a complex system of creating bank accounts and filling out hundreds of online tax returns to fraudulently obtain $1,069,556, the court heard.
Police had found jewellery, luxury items and bags of cash stashed in his home, his office and in sports lockers at his gym.
Officers also discovered a spreadsheet, hundreds of bank cards and a notebook in which he systematically recorded details of the taxpayers named in the returns, and the bank accounts the money had been deposited into.
They also discovered paperwork linked to six post office boxes rented by Khandelwal using the identities of people named in the spreadsheet.
Evidence tendered in the case included luxury items, jewellery and bags of cash the police found.
He had previously been found guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court, and given a four year sentence that Khandelwal was still serving under intensive corrections orders.
But a number of errors by the judge who heard that case led to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions appealing it to the Supreme Court, which handed down its judgement on Thursday.
Acting Justice Linda Ashford said it was clear the crimes were complex and premeditated and motivated by greed and the only appropriate sentence was jail time.
But Khandelwal had previously served 11 days in jail after his arrest, so the sentence was backdated to June last year, with a non-parole period of one year and seven months.