Farmer given suspended sentence for incorrect tax returns
A man who was charged with illegally importing sheep during the foot-and-mouth crisis in Ireland has been given a 12 months suspended sentence and fined €10,000 for making incorrect tax returns.
John Walsh (51), of Warrick Square, Carlisle, England and formerly of Longford House, Birr, Co Offaly, has been given 12 months in which to pay the €10,000 fine.
He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to two counts of making incorrect tax returns for the years 1994 to 1996 on January 30, 1997, and two counts of making late returns for those two tax years.
Walsh was jailed for three months at Dublin District Court in January after admitting four charges of illegally importing 279 sheep in contravention of EU trading regulations between February 19 and 20, 2001, the only person to be charged in relation to the fatal disease.
Judge Elizabeth Dunne noted Walsh had voluntarily returned to Ireland and co-operated with gardai.
He could not have been extradited for the Revenue offences.
Judge Dunne said she also had to take into consideration the evidence given that by the time he sold a farm in Offaly, which is his only remaining asset to meet his liabilities, he would have little or nothing left.
An Inspector of Taxes told Mr George Birmingham SC, prosecuting, that it was this investigation that led the Criminal Assets Bureau to make inquiries into Walsh’s tax affairs.
He said that, in April of last year, CAB seized a thick file about Walsh’s tax affairs from accountants Harrison and Co in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
They found two trading profit and loss account documents in the file to be of interest.
The first one showed Walsh to have a net profit of £58,803 before depreciation for the year ending March 31, 1995.
The second one, known as a draft account, showed a net profit of £68,323 before depreciation for the year-ending March 31, 1996.
He said all Walsh’s tax returns returned a nil liability and a nil profit throughout the 1990s.
The Inspector said CAB then contacted various meat marts around the country to try and establish a level of activity for the trading Walsh was involved in.
He was living in England at the time but returned on April 25 after being contacted by CAB.
They raised assessments about Walsh’s tax affairs in respect of a number of years.
They discovered that as well as making incorrect returns, Walsh made late returns on October 4, 1995 and October 21, 1996 when the final day for self-assessment for the previous years was January 31.
The Collector of Taxes served a tax demand on Walsh on May 18 of last year but it was only recently that significant developments had been made.
The Inspector said that on Tuesday, just before Walsh was due to go on trial, an agreement was made between him, the Revenue Commissioners and CAB to pay a substantial judgement and a final figure had been agreed.
Detective Inspector John McDermott said Walsh was remanded in custody following his arrest but was granted High Court bail which he couldn’t take up.
He then served seven months in prison on remand before being sentenced in January and then released last month.
Det Insp McDermott agreed with Mr Michael O’Higgins SC, for Walsh, that his client came home from England voluntarily and fully cooperated with the garda investigation.
The only asset he had was his farm in Co Offaly, which was mortgaged to the hilt, but he had agreed to sell it.
He was now effectively left with nothing.
