Cape Breton family accused in $3.6M tax fraud case not calling any defence witnesses

Members of aCape Breton family accused in a multimillion-dollar tax fraud case will not be calling any witnesses in their defence.

Georgette Young, Angela MacDonald, Nadia Saker, along with their mother, Lydia Saker, have pleaded not guilty to 30 chargesincluding fraud.

The women, whowere charged after a lengthy investigation by the Canada Revenue Agency, areaccused of using fictitious sales and expenses to drum up higher tax refunds to be paid out by the federal government.

They are representing themselves at the judge-only trial, which is running into its sixth week at Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Sydney.

CRA testifies sales, claims'not based in reality'

On Tuesday, Young asked Crown witness Michael Boudreau, an investigator with the Canada Revenue Agency,if he noticed a period in time when thewomen's sales and expense claims were at their highest.

"I would say the number escalated from the beginning," Boudreau testified, adding the numbers "were not based in reality."

Young questioned theinvestigator's collection of four boxes from her home containing 534 pages of documents.

She demonstrated to the court using a package of printer paper that putting 500 sheetsinto a box would not fill it. Boudreau responded by saying that not all of the boxes seized were actually full.

Young also askedwhether PDF documentssubmitted as part of the Crown's evidencecould have been changed or altered.

"I'm not going to say it's not possible," said Boudreau. "I don't know how."

$56M claimed in sales

It's alleged thewomen claimed $56 million in sales on products such as cookbooks, salad dressings, frozen dinners and fur coats through 10 companies under their control.

The women were paid more than $200,000 in tax refunds, but were denied another $3 million after auditors became suspicious, according to court documents.

Crown prosecutors are expected to present their final submissions in the case Wednesday.

The women will close out the trial with their arguments on Thursday morning.