Former FF TD avoids jail in tax declaration case

A JUDGE said yesterday he would not jail a former Fianna Fáil TD for tax fraud because he had already suffered humiliation, disgrace and the loss of his political career.

Michael Collins was fined €25,000 and given a 12-month suspended jail sentence at Limerick Circuit Court.

Collins, aged 66, of Redhouse Hill, Patrickswell, pleaded not guilty to a charge that on a date unknown between May 2 and June 12, 2002, he obtained a tax clearance cert by making a false declaration to the Revenue.

He was found guilty last month by a jury after a four-day trial and sentence was adjourned to yesterday.

Judge Carroll Moran said what occurred was of huge concern to the public.

However, he had to balance mitigating and aggravating factors when arriving at a sentence.

Collins, he said, was a member of Dáil Éireann, which made the laws, including those relating to tax, and the accused was at that time violating Revenue law.

In view of the accused’s public humiliation, Judge Moran said, a custodial sentence would be disproportionate and unjust.

He gave the accused three months to pay the €25,000.

The trial had been told that under new rules introduced by the Standards in Public Office Commission in 2001, members of the Dáil had to submit certificates from the Revenue that they were tax-compliant.

Mr Collins was elected to the Dáil for Limerick West in 2002.

He obtained a tax clearance cert by making a false declaration to the Revenue that his tax affairs were in order.

Revenue witnesses, who included Collector General Liam Irwin, told the trial had they known Collins had an undisclosed, bogus non-resident account, they would not have issued him with the tax clearance cert.

Collins, the trial heard, failed to come forward voluntarily when Revenue launched an amnesty in 2001 for people with bogus non-resident accounts.

Collins continued to conceal a bogus account he opened in the Kilmallock AIB branch in 1988 under the false names of Joseph and Ann Collins, with an address in Croydon, Surrey.

He finally came forward in 2003 after the Revenue contacted him and he settled for €130,602.

This was made up of €32,000 tax and €98,602 interest and penalties.

During the trial it was stated that during the period 1992 to 1998 the account was almost dormant with a balance of around €300.

Passing sentence, Judge Moran said there was no belittling or minimising what the accused did while a member of the Dáil.

The charge, he said, was not a Revenue one, but one of dishonesty.

He said: “I accept that Mr Collins has been seriously punished with the public humiliation and disgrace and suffered the humiliation of sitting in this court. His political career has been finished as a result. I am told he would have stood again for the Dáil but for this and probably would have been re-elected. All of these matters are severe punishment for a man in Mr Collins’s position. I also accept that he has severe health problems.”

Judge Moran said the garda who investigated the fraud, Det Sgt Declan Daly, accepted Collins was a decent man held in high regard by the people of west Limerick.

Judge Moran said former Fine Gael mayor of Limerick Gus O’Driscoll gave character evidence on behalf of Collins, who he called an honourable man.

Dr Michael Cleary, the accused’s GP, outlined serious medical conditions Collins had to live with. Dr Cleary feared a jail sentence would trigger some of these conditions and result in a stroke or brain bleed and put Collins at serious risk.