Lowry fails to block trial from circuit court

Former Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry has failed in his attempt to have a trial relating to alleged Revenue offences stopped in the circuit court.

Legal applications were made by Mr Lowry’s legal team in recent months to have the four charges faced by the independent TD — that he allegedly filed incorrect tax returns in 2003 and 2007 — struck out or to have the case permanently stayed.

However, Judge Thomas Teehan said yesterday at Clonmel Circuit Court he could find “no reason” to stay the trial and that it was “not even arguable” that the court should stop the trial based on a submission by the defence that Michael Lowry had been “singled out by various agencies of the State for extraordinarily rigorous scrutiny”.