Farmer paying €1.6m to settle tax bill

A judge heard that a farmer with 157 previous convictions, including one for fraud amounting to £1.3 million, will pay the Revenue Commissioners €1.6 million by the end of the year to settle his tax affairs.

John Oliver Byrne (55) appeared yesterday before Dundalk Circuit Criminal court where he admitted three charges of failing to make tax returns.

He was accompanied in court by the former Fine Gael TD Brendan McGahon.

The charges arose from a major cross-Border investigation involving Customs and Excise and the Criminal Assets Bureau. The court heard Byrne's house was searched in June 2004 and that "substantial evidence" was found that he was or had been producing income.

Cash amounting to €200,000 in euro and sterling notes was found hidden throughout the house as well as cheques, and the investigation found he had been operating a "substantial" business delivering grain to merchants throughout the country "for a number of years".

Garda Insp Kevin Ring also told the court that Byrne owns two farms - one at Mountpleasant, Co Louth, and the other in Belleeks, Co Armagh. He is also a cattle farmer and rents land to other farmers, he added.

In reply to John Kelly SC, prosecuting, the garda said Mr Byrne had 86 previous convictions in Northern Ireland, mainly relating to road traffic offences. However, he was convicted in Belfast Crown Court in December 1999 over fraudulent claims for grain subsidies that amounted to £1.3 million. He received a one-year suspended jail term.

Mr Byrne has 71 previous convictions in the Republic, 49 of them for road traffic offences and 22 for breaches of the liquor licensing laws. They related to vehicles Byrne had on the road and to a time when he owned a pub in Dromad, the garda said.

Derek Kenneally SC, defending, said that, to date, Byrne had paid more than €600,000 as part of an agreement reached with the Revenue Commissioners.

He will pay the balance agreed of just under €1 million by November.

"He has learnt a costly lesson," he said. He had left school early and worked hard to provide for his family but "had failed to honour his responsibilities as a citizen", Mr Kenneally added.

Judge Pat McCartan said Mr Byrne believed that "every which way he turned" he could take on the State and give "nothing back". He showed "total disregard for any law and regulations and to his obligation to pay tax. I believe the courts have a duty to send out a clear message to others who engage in a very selfish and dishonest existence".

The judge said he would not finalise the matter until after the final payment was due to the Revenue, adding that if he was told then that Byrne was tax-compliant "it will be a very significant factor".

The case was adjourned to next year.