How do I run phpunit test despite tested code throwing Notices - php

Question

I know ideally that I should fix all the places in my code where PHP Notices are being thrown but for now I am trying to get a simple test up and running for one part of the application.
When I try to run my test using
sudo phpunit -c tests/phpunit.xml tests/
I get the following notices:
PHP Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$integer_value in /var/www/application/authenticate.php on line 111
PHP Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$boolean_value in /var/www/application/authenticate.php on line 115
PHP Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$boolean_value in /var/www/application/site/authenticate.php on line 115
PHP Notice: Undefined property: stdClass::$integer_value in /var/www/application/authenticate.php on line 111
I've tried following the advice on this answer to a similar question https://stackoverflow.com/a/8412996/3263538
and have created a phpunit.xml configuration file which includes the following xml to ignore notices and warnings
tests/phpunit.xml
<phpunit convertErrorsToExceptions="false"
convertNoticesToExceptions="false"
convertWarningEToExceptions="false">
</phpunit>
UtilitesTest.php (dummy test that returns true)
<?php
use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
include_once "/var/www/application/utilities.php";
class UtilitiesTest extends TestCase
{
public function testEmpty()
{
return 1;
}
}
?>
but still no luck. Is there something I'm missing here? Ideally I'd like to suppress these Notice messages.