Man jailed for €613,000 tax evasion

A BUSINESSMAN has been sent to jail for failing to pay tax on almost €1 million lodged to a string of bogus non-resident accounts…

A BUSINESSMAN has been sent to jail for failing to pay tax on almost €1 million lodged to a string of bogus non-resident accounts.

Tadgh Feeney, Jerpoint West, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, appeared before Kilkenny Circuit Court yesterday.

The court heard Feeney had opened 29 Irish Nationwide Building Society accounts, all with bogus addresses in England.

John Flynn, assistant principal investigator at the Revenue Commissioners, said €921,000 had been lodged to these accounts between 1988 and July 1998. Some of the accounts were opened in the name of Feeney’s wife and their children, who were minors at the time, the court heard.

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Mr Flynn told Judge Olive Buttimer that Feeney had engaged in “systematic tax evasion over a long period” and had failed to “engage in any meaningful manner” with Revenue when afforded the opportunity.

Mr Flynn said that when interest was added to these accounts, the total lodgements came to more than €1.25 million.

Feeney pleaded guilty last November to 16 tax-related charges, including making false returns and failing to submit VAT and tax returns.

Mr Flynn said the defendant owed the Revenue Commissioners €613,000 and that he had been given every opportunity to pay.

The court also heard Feeney had opened three bogus non-resident accounts with Lloyds Bank, ACC Bank and Bank of Ireland.

Mr Flynn said €115,000 was lodged to an ACC bank account in the name of Feeney’s wife Bridget, but no details of the Lloyds and Bank of Ireland accounts were available.

Feeney’s tax affairs came under scrutiny following a VAT audit of his company Dominator Safes in 1998 and an investigation into bogus non-resident accounts by Revenue in 2000.

The court heard Feeney declared a self-assessed tax liability of €513,000 in 2001 as part of the Revenue’s amnesty on holders of bogus non-resident accounts, and paid just €6,348 to Revenue in November that year.

He paid a further €50,000 to revenue in June 2008.

Mr Flynn said the defendant owed €160,000 in VAT and €365,000 in tax and levies on the €921,000 in the bogus non- resident accounts. He said €66,000 was also due in tax on the ACC account and €78,000 was outstanding in current taxes.

Martin Giblin SC, for Feeney, said his client was in financial “meltdown”.

The court heard Feeney had lost 80 per cent of a €900,000 investment in dotcom shares following the closure of his non-resident accounts in 2001.

Judge Buttimer said these were “mean” and “very serious offences”.