Suspended sentence for farmer following €1.6m tax settlement

A farmer who paid the Revenue Commissioners more than €1.6 million to settle his tax affairs on foot of a major cross-Border investigation was yesterday given a two-year suspended jail sentence.

The Circuit Criminal Court in Dundalk heard that John Oliver Byrne (56), Strandfield House, Mountpleasant, Dundalk, has paid a total of €1.64 million and, according to John Kelly SC, for the prosecution, "as far as the Revenue Commissioners are concerned he has met his commitments".

He has 157 previous convictions in the Republic and Northern Ireland, including one for fraud involving £1.3 million (€1.93 million).

An earlier court heard details of the case and Judge Pat McCartan had adjourned sentencing until Byrne had finalised his affairs with the Revenue. He was before the court for failing to make tax returns.

The charges arose from a major cross-Border investigation, involving Customs and Excise and the Criminal Assets Bureau, during which Byrne's house was searched on June 17th, 2004, and "substantial evidence" was found that he was or had been producing income.

Some €200,000 in cash, made up of euro and sterling notes, was found hidden throughout the house, as well as cheques.

The investigation found he had been operating a "substantial" business delivering grain to merchants throughout the country "for a number of years". The court had already heard he owned two farms, one at Mountpleasant and the other in Belleeks, Co Armagh. He is also a cattle farmer and rents land to other farmers.

Some 86 of his previous convictions are in Northern Ireland, mainly for road-traffic offences.

In Belfast Crown Court in December 1999 he was convicted of making fraudulent claims for grain subsidies that amounted to £1.3 million. He received a one-year suspended jail term.

He has 71 previous convictions in the Republic, of which 22 are for breaches of the liquor licensing laws.

Yesterday Judge McCartan said that Byrne had carried "a significant burden, but that was of his own making".

He was a life-long farmer but was also a man "who has lived completely outside the good order of things", he added. He had answered to the law and put his affairs in order.

As he imposed a two-year jail term, Judge McCartan said he hoped Byrne had learnt his lesson and suspended the sentence on Byrne's entering into a bond to be of good behaviour for two years.