Former revenue officer jailed for part in 'loophole' tax scam

A former revenue officer and tax consultant who used a loophole in the tax system to defraud the State of over €112,000 has been jailed for four years.

Gerard Giffney (aged 52) asked a number of men to sign blank tax forms in relation to “relevant contracts tax” to claim cash back from Revenue.

These documents, know as RCTDC forms, stated they had worked as subcontractors on a number of building sites and were entitled to a tax refund. The work had never been carried out.

Giffney then filled in the remainder of the forms and submitted them to Revenue.

Giffney told the men that it was a way of making “a few quid” and advised them that they would receive a cheque in the post. He instructed them to lodge the cheque in their own bank account, keep 20% of the funds for themselves and return the balance to him in cash.

The court heard that it was through Giffney’s previous work in Revenue that he was aware there was a loophole in the processing of these forms because they were never cross-checked.

Detective Sergeant Michael McKenna told Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting that Giffney would have received more than €90,000, having defrauded a total of €112,686.

He said Giffney left Ireland in 2005 when gardaí first started to investigate the scam.

He was eventually arrested on a European Arrest Warrant and extradited back to Ireland in April 2012.

He claimed, after the charges were put to him, that the scheme had been orchestrated by the Provisional IRA and there was now a €10,000 contract out to have him killed.

Det Sgt McKenna said that he had investigated the offences for many years at the time of Giffney’s eventual arrest and there was no evidence to support this claim.

Giffney formerly of Tynan Hall Grove, Tallaght, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to four charges of knowingly aiding, abetting, assisting, inciting or inducing another to make an incorrect tax return and four charges of falsely representing that these people were entitled to a tax repayment on dates between February 2003 and July 2003.

The charges were representative of 11 incidents of fraud.

Giffney has a previous conviction for fraud and was jailed in 1995. He had been working as a revenue officer at the time of that offence but was fired as soon as the crime came to light. He set up his own tax advisory company upon his release from custody.

Judge Martin Nolan said Giffney was obviously an intelligent man who had used his knowledge of the way the Revenue system worked to carry out the fraud.

He said the men he had used in the scam were from his native Tallaght and they would have been upset that he had led them astray and brought them to the attention of the gardaí.

Judge Nolan accepted that Giffney had eventually pleaded to the offences but noted: “He used his God-given abilities to commit crime”.

Sean Gillane SC, defending, told the court that his client had served as a sergeant in the army before taking his civil servant exams and securing a position in Revenue.

He said he had a “constructive knowledge of this relevant loophole that facilitated this complex fraud”.