Source: AAP / Matt Turner
Tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle, who exposed heavy-handed debt collection tactics, has struck a plea deal with prosecutors.
The 49-year-old has admitted to four criminal charges linked to his exposure of unethical debt recovery practices at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
Boyle appeared in the Adelaide District Court on Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to disclosing protected information to another entity, making a record of protected information, using a listening device to record a private conversation and recording other people's tax file numbers.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions withdrew a further 15 charges, while another five charges were dropped in March.
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Boyle, a former ATO debt collection officer, raised concerns internally about debt recovery practices in October 2017, when he grew worried about operations in the tax office.
Believing his complaints had been ignored, he went public on the ABC's Four Corners program about the tactics used against taxpayers who owed the ATO money.
In 2019, he was charged with 66 criminal offences, but many of them were dropped over time.
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