TD to stand trial on tax evasion charges

INDEPENDENT Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick West Michael Collins is to stand trial on tax evasion charges in the Circuit Court, a judge was told yesterday.

Mr Collins, aged 65, of White Oak, Redhouse Hill, Patrickswell, appeared on remand at Rathkeale District Court, sitting in Newcastle West.

He was accompanied by family members and stood in the public gallery until the case was called.

Mr Collins was charged last Thursday at Bruff District Court that he cheated the office of the collector general by obtaining a tax clearance certificate by false pretences and that he obtained a tax clearance certificate under the Standard in Public Office Act 2001 by false pretences.

He was given €400 bail at Bruff district court.

When he appeared at yesterday’s district court hearing, Superintendent Joe Roe asked for a further remand to September 28 for the preparation of the book of evidence.

He told Judge Mary O’Halloran that the Director of Public Prosecutions had instructed that the trial should proceed by indictment (to the circuit court).

Detective Sergeant Declan Daly of the Garda National Fraud Bureau who arrested and charged Mr Collins at Bruff court was present at yesterday’s hearing.

Mr Collins was granted continuing bail until September 28.

The charges against Mr Collins came days after the state ethics watchdog, the Standards in Public Office Commission, lashed the DPP and the gardaí for the delay in deciding whether to prosecute the TD.

The commission will carry out its own investigation when the case is finalised.

After the last general election the commission received a tax clearance certificate from Mr Collins along with a statutory declaration that his tax affairs were in order.

This declaration was sworn a month after the election and several months before he reached a settlement with the Revenue Commissioners for more than €130,000 in taxes, interest and penalties in relation to a bogus non-resident account and the underpayment of income tax and VAT.

Mr Collins is bowing out of politics at the end of the Dáil and his nephew, Niall Collins, has been nominated by FF to contest the West Limerick three-seater.