A married couple who carried out Northern Ireland's largest ever tax fraud have failed in an attempt to have their prison sentences reduced.
Gerry Small, 56, and his wife Mary, 50, were jailed for three and a half and two and a half years respectively for operating a £4.5m scam.
The couple, from Dungannon, siphoned off cash and cheques from their business and hid it in off-shore accounts.
They used their gains to build 20 new homes, including their own 12,000 sq ft mansion.
Revenue officials who raided their home found £500,000 in cash hidden in a floor safe.
Lawyers for Mary Small asked the Court of Appeal in Belfast to lower her jail term so she could look after her three children, but the court refused, saying the trial judge had taken her maternal duties into account when passing sentence.
Her husband’s appeal against the sentence on the grounds of ill-health was also rejected.
