"I just never bothered paying", tax evader tells court

A spray painter who evaded paying an estimated €1.4m in tax has received 220 hours of community service in lieu of a prison sentence.

Trevor Dixon, aged 57, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 26 sample counts relating to tax evasion between 2002 and 2008, while he worked spray-painting Dublin buses.

Dixon, of Hazelwood, Shankill, Co Dublin, pleaded guilty to issuing incorrect Vat invoices, fraudulently evading income tax, failing to file tax returns and failing to pay Vat.

The defence had submitted that Revenue, who claimed that Dixon owed €1,409,119 to the State, had failed to take into account their client’s “very significant” outgoings.

Laurence Masterson BL, defending, said that, in fact, Dixon only owed only €61,670.

“All of his income has been bundled together as a taxable sum, with no regard to the tax he paid or his expenditure as a contractor. He paid for all the paint and the equipment,” he said.

Judge Mary Ellen Ring said he was now tax-compliant and has honoured his agreement with Revenue.

Judge Ring said Dixon had stuck his “head in the sand” like many people who do not deal appropriately with Revenue.

Referring to the month he spent in prison after the original sentence hearing last year, the judge added that Dixon’s “head only came out when he was put in custody”.

She acknowledged that this time spent in custody had encouraged Dixon to become tax compliant and gave him 220 hours of community service in lieu of two and a half years in jail.

During the sentence hearing last year, Aidan Murphy, a senior investigating officer with Revenue, said suspicions arose about Dixon’s tax affairs in 2008.

When Revenue asked Dixon about his employment status for the period 2002 to 2008, he said he had been employed in part-time contract work for Freeney Graphics, spray-painting Dublin buses.

Revenue officials noted that, during the same period, sums totalling €1.69m had been lodged into two bank accounts belonging to Dixon and his wife.

Freeney Graphics were contacted by Revenue and said they had employed Dixon between 1999 and 2004 as a subcontractor, and between 2004 and 2008 as a full employee of the company.

Dixon accepted that he had failed to register for Vat or submit Vat, even though he submitted invoices claiming Vat.

“I just never bothered. I didn’t have an accountant; I have now,” he told officials.