A CHINESE man who bribed a former Department of Justice employee to issue visa extensions to immigrant students in a “highly lucrative scam” has been jailed for 2½ years at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.
Bin Yang (26) referred Chinese students who had come to Ireland to study English but did not meet the conditions for a visa extension to Dara Revins who worked in the Garda Immigration Bureau.
Yang, Belton Park Gardens, Donnycarney, received up to €4,000 from the students for putting them in touch with Revins. Revins (28), Windmill Road, Crumlin, would give them the extension and was paid up to €1,500 by Yang for each student.
Revins was jailed for 18 months for his role on March 16th last but Yang failed to appear for sentencing and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested yesterday morning.
Revins pleaded guilty to three counts of accepting bribes in return for showing favour to others between December 1st, 2004, and June 17th, 2005. Yang pleaded guilty to inciting another to commit an offence and four counts of bribing Revins between the same dates.
Defence counsel Remy Farrell said Yang had failed to appear for sentencing on the last date due to “a family situation” and had “put his head in the sand” until his arrest.
Mr Farrell told Judge Katherine Delahunt that some parts of the Chinese community have a “very different cultural attitude” to corruption than Irish people and assume “the wheels have to be greased”.
Insp Maura Walsh told Dominic McGinn, prosecuting, that Yang put an advertisement in a Chinese community newspaper offering to “help do any problems with visas”.
Insp Walsh explained that immigrant students required a class attendance rate of over 85 per cent to qualify for a visa extension but many could not meet this because they had to take on jobs.
Instead they would contact Yang who would get Revins to issue an extension.
Insp Walsh said it was a “highly lucrative” scam with both men making up to €20,000.