A FORMER Department of Justice employee has been jailed for 18 months for his role in a scam where visa extensions were issued to immigrant students in return for bribes.
Dara Revins (28), who made €20,000 from the scheme, worked at the Garda National Immigration Bureau issuing visas to Chinese students who had come to Ireland to study English.
His co-accused, Bin Yang (26), referred students who did not meet the conditions for a visa extension to Revins.
A warrant was issued for Yang on March 6th last after he failed to appear for his sentence hearing.
Revins, of Windmill Road, Crumlin, Dublin, would give the students the extension and was paid up to €1,500 by Yang for each student. The students, all Chinese nationals, would pay Yang up to €4,000 for putting them in touch with Revins.
Judge Katherine Delahunt at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court said: “Since the foundation of the State, this country has been served, in the main, very well by its public servants, and the community at large should be able to trust these people who have been put in a position to protect their interests.”
She said Revins had “grossly abused the trust placed in him simply for money”.
Judge Delahunt accepted that Revins’s abuse of alcohol at the time may have led to his involvement in the offence, but noted that he still had not dealt with his addiction.
Insp Maura Walsh told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that Yang, of Belton Park Gardens, Donnycarney, Dublin, put an advertisement in a Chinese community newspaper offering to “help do any problems with visas”.
Insp Walsh explained that immigrant students required a class attendance rate of more than 85 per cent to qualify for a visa extension, but many could not meet this requirement because they also had jobs. Instead, they would contact Yang, who would get Revins to issue an extension.
Insp Walsh said it was a “highly lucrative” scam, with both men making up to €20,000 in total.
She said Revins was caught when officials became suspicious of his work and carried out an examination of his bank account.
Gardaí searched his home on June 17th, 2005, and found two Chinese passports that Revins later admitted he was going to stamp in return for bribes. After his arrest, he admitted to several cases in which he had taken bribes in return for visas.
Yang was arrested on the same day and also admitted his role in the scam.
Revins pleaded guilty to three counts of accepting bribes in return for showing favour to others between December 1st, 2004, and June 17th, 2005.
Yang pleaded guilty to five charges of bribing Revins between the same dates.
Insp Walsh agreed with Bernard Condon, defending Revins, that he was “not the sharpest person” and was easily led. She said he had been introduced to Yang through his housemate, but he had not been prosecuted.
Insp Walsh further agreed with Remy Farrell, defending Yang, that Yang would most likely be deported to China when the case was finished. She said the Chinese community had a different relationship with corruption than Irish people and some assumed “the wheels have to be greased”.
Mr Condon said his client, Revins, had serious problems with alcohol and came from a good family in Co Tipperary.
He said Revins had lived and worked in New Zealand after the incident but had come back to Ireland voluntarily to face the charges. Both he and Yang have no previous convictions.
Mr Condon told Judge Delahunt it was obvious his client was a “man of ability but one who also faces a challenge in trying to control his alcohol addiction”.
He asked her to take into account the fact that Revins had come to court to “face the consequences of his actions” and now was the only one involved in the scam who had done so.
Mr Condon said his client acknowledged it was a serious offence that represented a breach of trust, but asked the court to accept Insp Walsh’s testimony that Revins’s involvement had been at the lower end of the scale.