A 74-year-old retired farmer from Co Limerick has been ordered to pay almost €250,000 in fines and taxes, after he failed to come clean with the Revenue Commissioners.
Judge Carroll Moran said Daniel Joseph Leahy, of Ballycommane in Tournafulla, had told fibs and lies to the Revenue.
It is the first case of its kind to be taken under the provisions of the 1993 tax amnesty.
Leahy pleaded guilty to eight charges which arose as a result of his failure to declare the existence of three bogus non-resident accounts under the legal provisions of the amnesty, and relate to a 15-year tax period from 1980.
The court heard that Leahy failed to avail of the tax amnesty incentive in 1993, under which his tax liability would then have been €33,500.
With interest and penalties it now stood at almost €650,000.
An investigation found that Leahy had three bogus non-resident accounts in Ireland using an uncle's address in New York.
There was a total of €240,000 in these accounts and the defendant withdrew this money in cash over a three-week period in 1998. No proper explanation had been given as to the destination of these funds.
He alleged he had given this money to his grandchildren, which the court was told had not even been born at the time.
Sentencing at Limerick Circuit Court, Judge Moran said Leahy had behaved in a most stupid manner.
But having regard to the defendant's age, the fact that he had a handicapped son, and his plea of guilty, the judge imposed a fine of €125,000 to be paid by September, or face a two-year jail sentence.
He also ordered that Leahy pay his current tax principal of €118,000.
