An Irish businesswoman has been jailed in Britain for six years for her part in what is believed to be the largest VAT fraud - worth £20 million - to come to trial in the UK.
Bernadette Devine (34), a former Tory councillor, was found guilty of five counts of tax evasion in what was described as a "truly massive" criminal enterprise spanning three years.
She had six homes in the UK and Ireland and was building her own country club and hotel at Ballymote, close to where she was born in Keash, Co Sligo.
Passing sentence in Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court, Judge William Rose said Devine was "high up in the rank of command" in the fraud which saw Daniel O'Connell jailed for eight years in August last year.
She was sentenced to four years on a first count of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of VAT, and two years on a similar count. She was then sentenced to two years for each of a further three counts to run concurrently.
Devine claimed she would countersue the prosecution for money she had lost and appeal against the verdict to the United Nations. She branded her trial "a legal fiasco". The fraud was based on the VAT-free status of goods exported from one EU country to another. O'Connell bought computer chips and components and made it appear that they were for firms in Ireland and so not liable for VAT when purchased. Most of the £100 million worth of purchases by his five firms never left Britain and were sold on at a profit.
The fraud is also alleged to have involved Mr Michael Keating, a former lord mayor of Dublin and minister of State in Dr Garret FitzGerald's government of the 1980s.
Mr Keating was "well involved" in the fraud, according to the prosecutor for HM Customs and Excise, Mr Peter Rook QC, who said he was also a director of one of O'Connell's Irish firms which placed bogus orders for chips. Mr Keating will not face prosecution unless he goes to the UK because of an Anglo-Irish agreement that suspects in fiscal matters are not subject to extradition.