Court fines Ford dealership €50,000 over VAT fraud
Benners Garage, Mile Height, Killarney Road, Tralee, admitted the offences but was now tax complaint, the court was told.
Judge Carroll Moran said the penalty imposed could not force the defendant out of business, but a severe view had to be taken of the offences.
The charges related to incorrect returns and underpayment of VAT.
Judge Moran noted the company had pleaded guilty at an early stage and neither it, nor its directors, had previous convictions.
However, there had been a deliberate attempt to defraud the Revenue which, the judge said, was unfair on other people who were tax compliant.
Inspector of Taxes Noel Wall, of the Investigation and Prosecution Division of the Revenue Commissioners in Dublin, told how a revenue audit in April 2001 and a subsequent investigation had uncovered a parallel accounting system alongside the car dealership’s main computerised system.
This involved a ledger written in longhand and was a separate set of records relating to second-hand cars. VAT was not accounted for on these for the seven VAT periods between March/April 1999 and March/April 2000.
Money received amounted to more than €90,000 and the VAT due was over €15,465, Mr Wall said.
He told prosecuting counsel Dominic McGinn all the money had been lodged into a bank account in a name other than that of the company.
The court also heard how search warrants had been obtained and nine revenue officials were involved in a search of a private residence, an accountant’s office and business premises and a large amount of records had been taken by the Revenue officials.
Senior counsel David Sutton, for the defendant, said that VAT had now been paid, with penalties, and this amounted to €34,133.
The business profit up to end of September this year was €300,000, but there was a downward trend and he asked Judge Moran to take into account the general downturn in the auto industry.
The company was tax compliant, Mr Sutton also said.
It was a long established company, going back to 1920, and the earliest Ford dealership in the county.
The prosecution was brought under the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997.
