Mid West, Murchison pastoral station owners slapped with $330,000 in penalties for late returns

The owners of several Mid West and Murchison pastoral stations have been slapped with more than $330,000 worth of fines and penalties for failing to submit its annual returns on time. Laststar Investments was forced to face court after it did not pay returns on its leases at Meeberrie, New Forrest and Pinnacles stations between December 2020 and December 2021. Company representative Helen Dunbar told Geraldton Magistrates Court on Monday that she and her partner had agreed on “consolidating” their operations and “not taking on as much work” before they were asked to take over another lease in 2019. Ms Dunbar said her partner had been concerned about the welfare of livestock on the lease and therefore agreed to take responsibility for the land. Due to the additional workload and staff shortages, Ms Dunbar was left responsible for managing paperwork across all three leases. She admitted she had struggled to keep up with the work and said the company would be pleading guilty to failing to lodge its annual returns. Acting on behalf of the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, prosecutor Lorraine Allen said the annual returns process was not intended to cause undue “financial stress”, but was instead designed to ensure pastoral leases were managed free from fraud. On top of $30,000 worth of penalties, Laststar Investments were also ordered to pay a $300,600 fine which had accrued for every day the annual returns were overdue.