A DUBLIN building contractor was jailed yesterday after evading almost €500,000 in tax over an eight-year period.

Colm Perry, of Nephin Road, Dublin, was sentenced to 20 months without suspension by Judge Martin Nolan at Dublin’s Circuit Criminal Court. Only six other tax offenders have served time in the last 10 years.

Mr Perry settled a tax liability of €499,998 last week with the Revenue Commissioners, but interest and penalties of €925,000 are still outstanding.

The 44-year-old pleaded guilty yesterday to multiple breaches of tax law, including the failure to declare or pay VAT and income tax between 1996 and 2005.

His tax irregularities came to the attention of the Revenue in 2004 when one of his clients, Windmill Lane Pictures Ltd, tried to reclaim VAT he had charged on an invoice for building work.

The VAT registration number on the invoice related to a company called Riverstream Developments Ltd. Inspector of Taxes Sheila Hanley explained this was set up by Mr Perry in 1992, but it had never filed tax returns or paid tax and had been struck off by the Companies Registration Office in 1999 for failing to file returns.

A bogus company name – Colm F Perry Ltd – had been used on the invoice. Similar invoices had been issued to, among others, the Merrion Hotel, the K Club, Elm Park Golf Club and TV3. However, he failed to declare or remit any VAT to the Revenue. He also failed to pay income tax during the period in question, and did not deduct PAYE and PRSI from two permanent employees as required.

Judge Nolan said that while he accepted Mr Perry was a “decent, hard-working man”, a custodial sentence couldn’t be avoided. He hoped the prison sentence would act as a deterrent to others.