Fashion baron pays €6.5m tax redress

FASHION tycoon, Sean Barron, has made a €6.5 million settlement with the Revenue Commissioners after admitting to evading tax.

Mr Barron and his family own Flairline Fashions, which runs the Pamela Scott, Richard Allen and Escada chain of shops nationwide.

The latest Revenue tax defaulters list shows Mr Barron paid out €5m in interest and penalties on the tax liability of €1.4m.

The 70-year-old, who lives in the exclusive Killiney area of Dublin, was found by the Revenue Commissioners to have evaded income tax and VAT. He also maintained a bogus non-resident bank account and hid untaxed assets offshore.

Mr Barron founded Flairline Fashions in the 1970s and has built the company into one of Ireland’s most successful retail chains with 14 shops across the country.

He is still heavily involved in running the company along with his four sons.

Mr Barron started off with the upmarket Pamela Scott brand before buying the three Richard Allen stores. He also owns Ireland’s first Escada outlet, which was officially opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Mr Barron did not return a call for comment.

His was the largest settlement with the Revenue Commissioners in the last three months of 2006. Revenue netted €35m from 131 individuals during the period, relating to various tax evasion scams.

The second-largest settlement was paid by retired Co Mayo vet, Patrick Maughan, who paid out €3m in tax and penalties after an audit of his affairs.

The next highest payment was by John McCreesh, a retired farmer from Co Louth, who forked out €2.4m after a Revenue audit.

The late Frederick O’Donoghue, a caravan hire agent of Park Road, Killarney, Co Kerry, made a €1.3m settlement.

Desmond Green, a retired engineer based in Portugal, also made a €1.3m settlement.

Another €1m-plus settlement was agreed to by Manus Gallagher, from Rathmines in Dublin, who left his income and VAT undeclared and also held untaxed funds in insurance policies.

Christy Quill, a director of the Quills clothing business, made a payment of €142,710.

Mr Quill paid the penalty for underdeclaring income tax and for having a bogus non-resident account.

The Revenue figures also show:

40 settlements totalling €14.9m from bogus non-resident account holders;

22 settlements worth €6m from investigations into untaxed offshore funds; and

30 settlements totalling €5.23m from the single premium insurance product probe.

Revenue also reached two settlements arising from its investigation of the Ansbacher Bank, totalling €80,000.

The individuals concerned are the elderly parents of Padraig Collery, who has been banned from acting as company director for his role in the Ansbacher scandal.

Labour Party finance spokeswoman, Joan Burton, said Revenue should be congratulated for recovering the tax owed.

“I believe it is time for a much more vigorous approach towards persistent offenders. Unless the authorities use the powers available to initiate court prosecutions, the current level of evasion is likely to continue,” she added.