A FORMER company director who defrauded the State of almost €200,000 in taxes has been jailed for three years.
Seán Hartigan of Prestige Recycling, which had a company address at North Circular Road, Limerick, filed fraudulent VAT returns over an 18-month period that amounted to a total discrepancy of €188,000.
The 53-year-old also made false VAT repayment claims of €35,000 on dates between September 2005 and February 2007.
Before jailing Hartigan at Limerick Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Carroll Moran said it would be unfair on compliant taxpayers not to punish this type of crime and said there had been a serious effort to defraud the Revenue.
“It undermines the social solidarity of society if the courts and the State are not seen to punish people who are not compliant, whether it’s tax evasion or social welfare fraud,” Judge Moran said.
He said the fact that there was a loss of revenue to the State was “not to be ignored”.
The judge also referred to two recent cases he had dealt with in Tralee involving social welfare fraud where he imposed prison sentences. Judge Moran said social welfare fraud and tax offences, while different, were “two sides of the same coin”.
Hartigan who had sole control of Prestige Recycling, pleaded guilty to six charges under the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997.
The company, which is now in liquidation, provided labour to waste company Veolia to carry out segregation and compacting of recycled waste.
Judge Moran accepted that Hartigan, now living on social welfare in west Clare, was currently of the most limited means, but described as an aggravating factor the fact there had been no effort to repay the money other than an offer of €3,000, which was completely “inadequate”.