A CAR dealer alleged to have been involved in an “elaborate hoax” to deceive the Revenue which is pursuing him for €5.2 million over unpaid taxes has received a six-month suspended prison sentence at the High Court.
Mr Justice Sean Ryan imposed the sentence on Pauraig Kane, formerly one of the operators of Kane Motors of Granard, Co Longford, following an application by the Revenue to jail him for contempt of court orders granted in May 2009.
The 2009 order required he should not be involved in the business of Kane Motors until he had discharged the €5.2 million debt to the Revenue, which obtained a High Court judgment against him for that amount on the basis of a 2004 tax assessment.
A similar order was obtained against his brother John “Alex” Kane – for €4.95 million – who disappeared after the High Court was told he was in contempt of an order by continuing to trade.
A warrant was issued for John Kane’s arrest in August 2010 but the court was told this week he has been living since then in Derrylin, Co Fermanagh.
Pauraig Kane was before the court this week to be cross-examined about his affidavits about his activities since the May 2009 order was imposed.
The Revenue claimed that he was part of an elaborate hoax whereby vehicles continued to be sold from the Kane Motors yard using falsified invoices and third-party cheques to ensure they could not be traced to Kane who must pay the €5.2 million tax debt before he can resume business.
Kane told the court that he accepted he had breached the order in part but said, since his wife had set up the business, they had done everything possible to comply with it.
Mr Justice Ryan said that he regarded Kane’s story as being improbable but also found it difficult to find that Kane, his wife Caroline and car salesman Marc Berrigan, who all gave evidence to the court, had perjured themselves.
The judge said that he proposed imposing a six-month suspended sentence on Kane on condition that the Kane yard in Granard be cleared of all vehicles, other than those being dealt with by his wife and Kane in the course of his employment there, within four weeks.
He is also to undertake not to deal in third-party cheques and to supply a schedule of all information in relation to some 88 vehicles in the yard.