A former senior tax official who attempted to defraud the Revenue Commissioners of £3.8 million in a forged VAT repayment claim has been jailed for seven years for his part in the conspiracy.
Brendan Murphy, who was a principal officer in the Collector General's Limerick offices before his 1997 arrest, was the manager of the State's entire VAT repayment system when carrying out the plan.
Imposing sentence at Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Judge Kevin Haugh said he was satisfied that Murphy had misused his power and perpetrated a gross breach of privilege as a trusted employee in a very substantial fraud.
Calling the conspiracy "very clever and ingenious", the judge said it could have been carried out only with deep inside knowledge of how the Revenue Commissioners operated, adding that he was satisfied that all the information on the forged documents must have come from Murphy.
The plot was exposed in June 1997, when an assistant principal officer in Limerick, Mr Sam Gill, became suspicious about the forged VAT claim and alerted superiors. A co-conspirator of Murphy's, Brendan O'Doherty, was arrested in Ennis where he had gone to collect the £3.8 million cheque, and Murphy was arrested at his office the following day.
O'Doherty has since died in jail. Murphy initially pleaded guilty to conspiring with him and others unnamed, but attempted to change his plea earlier this year. He claimed he had been suffering the effects of a long-term tranquilliser dependency when pleading guilty.
Judge Haugh refused the plea change last April, however, pointing out that Murphy had for a number of years held down a very senior position with the Revenue Commissioners, and there was no evidence he had been unable to function efficiently because of prescribed drugs.
Yesterday the judge ruled that the final three years of the sentence be suspended on condition that Mr Murphy enter a bond to keep the peace and that the sentence commence from December 16th last, when Murphy was first remanded in custody.
He said that Murphy, a father of five, now represented "a sad and sorry figure, who had fallen from a great height". Originally from Trim, Co Meath, Murphy was appointed principal officer in the decentralisation of part of the Collector General's office to Limerick in 1993.
In a statement made after his arrest, he claimed he had been pressurised by O'Doherty and his associates at a series of meetings in early 1997, and threats had been made against him and his family if he did not co-operate. But the Criminal Assets Bureau, which investigated the case, rejected his claims, and Judge Haugh said that even if Murphy had not been the originator of the plan, he had given "calculated and enthusiastic" assistance to it.
The CAB said in evidence that Murphy would have collected £2 million for his part in the fraud. Despite the conviction he will retain his pension rights, based on 18 years' service.