A self-employed business man who owed €400,000 to the Revenue Commissioners after failing to make tax returns for three years has been given a two-year suspended sentence and fined €9,000.
John Peters (56), of Culmore Road, Palmerstown pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three counts of failing to make returns for three of the tax years between 1995 and 2001.
Mr Benedict O Floinn BL, prosecuting, told Judge Desmond Hogan said the maximum fine the court could impose was €127,000 and or a five-year jail term.
A Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Mr O Floinn that Peters admitted during interview that he knew he was required to file returns but failed to do so.
Peters, who provides large machinery to the construction industry, had reached an agreement with the Revenue Commissioners to pay the €400,000.
The CAB officer agreed with Mr O Floinn that Peters had sold some of his business assets to pay the money to the Revenue Commissioners. This figure included all money owed plus interest.
"We came to an agreement and he has complied with the terms of the agreement. It took a bit of a push but we got it," he said.
The CAB officer also said Peters had a number of previous convictions. He was given the Probation Act in 1968 and paid compensation for a larceny offence.
Peters was also sentenced to three months and six months in 1969 for driving without insurance, larceny and malicious damage. He was given a one-year sentence for larceny in 1970 and was fined and given the Probation Act in relation to a malicious damage charge in 1975.
Mr Sean Gillane BL, defending, said his client had honoured the terms of the agreement by paying the money adding that, as result, Peters' business situation radically changed, was the subject of "significant shrinkage," and his personal circumstances altered also.
Judge Hogan said he took into account Peters' compliance with the agreement to pay the Revenue Commissioners as well as the fact that he had depleted his business assets. He added that while Peters had previous convictions, they were accrued a long time ago.