Burke helped builders deal with Revenue

Mr Ray Burke made representations to the Revenue Commissioners on behalf of builders Brennan and McGowan when he was minister for industry and commerce in 1989, the tribunal has heard.

Mr Tom Brennan told the tribunal yesterday that the minister said he could not do any thing for the builders in their dispute over a multi-million tax claim faced by one of their companies, Bardun Estates. "He gave me the impression he could do nothing."

Mr Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, said Mr Burke had no official function in the matter. He had "no business whatsoever" contacting the Revenue, which was exercising its statutory functions.

What, asked Mr Hanratty, could the minister "bring to the table" that an accountant couldn't achieve in his dealings with the taxman.

"You would have been peeved and put out if he did not comply with your request to contact the Revenue given that you had paid him such large sums of money," he said.

"Not really," Mr Brennan replied.

In April 1989, the chairman of the Revenue, Mr P.F. Curran, wrote to Mr Burke, and effectively rejected Brennan and McGowan's arguments for a lower settlement. Bardun Estates eventually settled for £2.2 million.

Earlier, Mr Hanratty accused the witness of failing to tell the tribunal of a Revenue investigation into another of his companies, Oak Park Developments. This company made a tax settlement of £1.4 million in the 1980s, but counsel said Mr Brennan never told his solicitor that relevant documents were available with the Revenue.

Mr Brennan said he didn't see the relevance of it. This related to a different period, in the 1970s.

Asked whether he paid £35,000 to Mr Burke in April 1984, Mr Brennan said he hadn't. Mr Hanratty asked if it was a coincidence that Mr Burke was in Jersey at this time, and that he was also in Jersey in November 1984, when a Brennan and McGowan-linked company paid him £60,000.

Was it not a coincidence, counsel asked, that "of all the solicitors in all the Channel Islands," Mr Burke ended up engaging the same firm as that used by Brennan and McGowan.