A Cork city horse dealer appeared in court yesterday charged with 10 counts of failing to make tax returns after he was arrested by Criminal Assets Bureau officers as he left a bank on Tuesday.
Mr Jeremiah O'Driscoll (56), with addresses at Ardcullen, Hollyhill, Cork, and The Cottage, Farmers Cross, Cork, is accused of failing to make returns on his income, profits and means to the Revenue Commissioners between 1989 and 1998. Yesterday, at a bail application at Cork District Court, an officer of the Criminal Assets Bureau said Mr O'Driscoll was arrested outside a Cork bank carrying cash and bank drafts.
The CAB officer said he believed the money was "the proceeds of money-laundering and criminal activities" and that Mr O'Driscoll was moving the money to frustrate the CAB investigation into his affairs.
Mr O'Driscoll, who was served with a tax assessment of £165,000 eight days ago, told the court he was withdrawing the money to pay the Revenue Commissioners after getting the tax bill.
"I got the money out to do a deal with the tax. I said to him `I suppose you're going to be hard on me' but he said he was approachable," said Mr O'Driscoll, who added he had to break a tracker bond to withdraw some of the money.
Mr O'Driscoll's solicitor, Mr Diarmuid Kelleher, who had objected to the CAB officer's evidence of money laundering on the grounds that it tainted the issue, said his client was willing to allow other assets to be frozen if required.
Judge Uinsinn Mac Gruairc remanded Mr O'Driscoll on his own bail of £5,000 to appear again on October 20th and he made it a condition that Mr O`Driscoll does not reduce his assets at the TSB Bank on Cathedral Road in Cork below £60,000.