Revenue worker arrested in motor scam
The man, who has worked with the tax inspectorate for more than 30 years, was questioned last night in Blanchardstown Garda Station in Dublin.
His arrest followed a raid in which 40 top-of-the- range cars, including Range Rovers, BMWs, Bentleys and Mercedes, were confiscated.
The man in his 50s is suspected of processing fraudulent tax returns on behalf of the car dealers importing and selling these cars.
Gardaí believe the scam involved cars being taxed at a basic VRT rate, meaning the car dealers were defaulting the Revenue of between €5,000 and €20,000 on each car.
The raids were part of Operation TIE — a fraud investigation by both custom officials and gardaí including officers from the Criminal Assets Bureau.
Yesterday between 6am and 9am, gardaí raided 30 premises, including houses, garages and offices of solicitors and accountants.
The confiscated vehicles are being held by gardaí while they check the correct sum of VRT was paid on them. In one case, a Range Rover was seized by a man as he drove it to work.
A 9mm handgun was also found in one of the warehouses connected to a car showroom.
A statement from gardaí said searches took place throughout Dublin city but were mainly concentrated in Dublin 12 and the Naas Road area. CAB said it believe the scam involved a small number of car dealers.
Gardaí said Operation TIE began nine months ago but is not connected to Operation Viking, which is investigating a similar scam.
In June, Operation Viking seized 54 cars as part of a crackdown on a scam in which cars were converted into commercial vehicles to cut VRT owed on them.
The Revenue annual report for 2006 said that, separate to both these investigations, 993 vehicles were seized in 2006 as part of routine “blitz-style operations” against motorists last year.
This led to the recovery of almost €8m in VRT and penalties of €700,000.
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