A small businessman is living in fear of his life following his alleged involvement in a £20 million VAT fraud with former politician Mr Michael Keating, a British court heard yesterday.
Mr Daniel O'Connell (46) repeatedly denied prosecution allegations that he had been running the three-year fraud with the former lord mayor of Dublin. Mr O'Connell is standing trial for tax fraud at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in London.
The prosecution claimed that Mr O'Connell had borrowed £150,000 from Mr Keating to help with his building business and in return had been asked to become involved with a computer firm. It alleged that Mr O'Connell paid just £32,000 to the taxman between 1995 and 1999 when the true figure he owed was reputedly closer to £20 million.
Mr O'Connell told the jury the reason he did not inform any authorities of the fraud operation or the alleged threats he received was because he was scared.
Mr O'Connell said: "Michael Keating is a powerful figure in Ireland. He walked in corridors of power. I saw him having lunch with the Minister for Justice, the Minister for Agriculture, at a hotel in Dublin, while on the other side he was with top criminals. The chances of him finding me out were very high." It is alleged that Mr Keating, flanked by two notorious "heavies", threatened Mr O'Connell at a meeting in Ennis, Co Clare. But Mr O'Connell is still refusing to name the men for his own protection.
Mr O'Connell, of Catherine Street, Limerick, denies five counts of tax evasion and one of cheating the public revenue.