Car dealer with €4.9m tax bill jailed for contempt

A car dealer has been jailed by the High Court a second time for contempt after it found he is continuing to give the Revenue the “runaround” in its efforts to execute a €4.97m judgment obtained nine years ago against him over unpaid taxes.

The Revenue claimed John Alex Kane, formerly of Granard, Co Longford, and now with an address in Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, painted an “entirely untrue” picture of himself as a man of very limited means drawing benefits in the North.

Revenue claimed that Mr Kane enjoys a significant but extremely complex income based on a “sophisticated, surrepitious, and covert” trade in motor vehicles, parts, and acessories in the Republic, the North, and in Britain. He appeared to supplement that income with farming subsidies from the Department of Agriculture and rental income from various properties, it claimed.