Dental surgeon pays €1m to Revenue

A south Dublin dental surgeon has been fined €4,500 after pleading guilty to nine criminal charges of tax evasion following a €1.02 million settlement with the Revenue.

Martin Vincent Canny of Willow Mount, Booterstown, was convicted by the Dublin Metropolitan District Court in relation to offences committed between 1995 and 2001. An endodontist, or gum specialist, he owns a practice at Richview Office Park, Clonskeagh.

The court heard that he has promised to co-operate with the Revenue in relation to a separate inquiry into an "under the counter" payment for a property which reduced his exposure to stamp duty.

He was convicted yesterday on foot of the Revenue's long-running investigation into bogus non-resident accounts. Judge Cormac Dunne imposed a fine of €500 in respect of each of the nine offences after he made final settlement last month with Revenue for €1,019,086.

This sum included penalties of €236,702 and interest of €371,916, the court heard. The €410,468 tax element included €157,932 in respect of undeclared income of €314,000 in the period between 1992 and 2001. The nine charges to which Mr Canny pleaded guilty referred to that income.

The remaining €252,536 in the settlement was in respect of liabilities that were not the subject of criminal charges. Four additional charges were struck out with the Revenue's consent.

Judge Dunne said that great credit was due to Revenue investigators and said they had served the public interest well.

Taking into account Mr Canny's guilty pleas, his settlement and the fact that he had no previous convictions, the judge said the public interest would not be served by imposing a custodial sentence.

Senior tax inspector Donal Buckley told the court that Mr Canny never availed of the opportunity to settle his affairs under a scheme in which defaulters could declare their tax liability by a given deadline and not have their names publicised.

Mr Buckley said Mr Canny had 20 undeclared bank accounts in AIB, the TSB, the EBS and First Active. A First Active account he opened in 1995 was a bogus non-resident account. Mr Canny lodged a total of €870,000 into these accounts between the late 1980s and 2001 and they once held some £205,000 (€260,350).

Mr Patrick Hunt SC for Mr Canny told the court that his client was now fully compliant and had promised to assist Revenue in another inquiry. He said Mr Canny opened a non-resident account in 1992 before his departure to the US for two years. While Mr Canny believed he was "genuinely non-resident" in this period, he did not close the account on his return.