AUGUSTA – A Standish man who sells vacuum cleaners in New Hampshire pleaded not guilty this week to a seven-count indictment charging him with failing to pay an estimated $47,000 in sales and withholding taxes.

Nathaniel J. Dupuis, 40, was arrested early Saturday and arraigned Monday in Kennebec County Superior Court via video link from the jail.

At that proceeding, he told Justice Donald Marden that he works for a business selling vacuum cleaners and has to drive to New Hampshire each day to sell them because he has been told he cannot collect taxes in Maine.

Marden set bail at $5,000 and Dupuis was released.

Dupuis is charged with two counts of theft by misapplication involving sales tax and withholding tax; three counts of intentional evasion of sales tax; and two counts of failure to collect, account for or pay over sales tax.

The alleged offenses occurred in the period from February 2006 to June 2008, according to court records.

An assistant district attorney told Marden that a total of about $47,000 is missing.

Records in Kennebec County Superior Court show that Dupuis was summoned to court Feb. 28 on a complaint containing similar charges, but the summons was returned as “undeliverable.”

Dupuis also allegedly failed to appear for an arraignment on April 18. He told the judge he had moved and never received the notices. The indictment lists an address on Shaker Road in Gray.

 

Kennebec Journal Staff Writer Betty Adams can be contacted at 621-5631 or at:

badams@centralmaine.com