Michael Lowry loses attempt to have Revenue case stopped

Former Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry has failed in his attempt to have a trial relating to alleged Revenue offences stopped in the circuit court.

Legal applications were made by Mr Lowry’s legal team in recent months to have the four charges faced by the independent TD, that he allegedly filed incorrect tax returns in 2003 and 2007, struck out or to have the case permanently stayed.

However, Judge Thomas Teehan said at Clonmel Circuit Court he could find "no reason" to stay the trial and that it was "not even arguable" that the court should stop the trial based on a submission by the defence that Michael Lowry had been "singled out by various agencies of the State for extraordinarily rigorous scrutiny".

Mr Lowry (60) of Glenreigh, Holycross, Co Tipperary, was in court for the judgement but not called upon to speak.

The judge agreed to transfer the trial from Co Tipperary to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, following an application in July from the State based on the amount of people who have voted for Mr Lowry in elections, as it “seems to me that the possibility of objective bias could not be avoided even if the most careful precautions were taken”.

Judge Teehan said that approximately 30 per cent of the entire jury panel in Tipperary North, “regularly entrust Mr Lowry over many years with high public office”.

The reasons given by the defence in October and November for the application for a strike-out were on the grounds of insufficient evidence, wrongful exposure of taxpayer information to the public, pre-trial publicity, abuse of process, no outstanding tax liability on Mr Lowry’s part, and an alleged offence against the administration of justice.

In relation to pre-trial publicity, the judge said the portrayal by the defence of media coverage of the investigation into Mr Lowry as “irreparably damaging,” especially coverage in one Sunday newspaper, was “not borne out by the examples which have been referred in the course of argument before me”.

Judge Teehan referred to one example given by the defence, a headline in the Sunday Independent from last year which stated ‘Lowry tax probe now ‘criminal’ — Revenue’ and said this “is in fact true and accurate and, moreover, is no more damaging than a similar assertion relating to any person under criminal investigation”.

He did, however, “unequivocally deplore the modern trend of alerting large numbers of media personnel prior to the raiding of homes, offices or other buildings”.

A “graphic description” in an affidavit by Mr Lowry of what happened when his home was raided on foot of a search warrant “should be a salutary reminder to everybody that the powers to enter a person’s dwelling and to remove items there from, while necessary on occasion for the adequate investigation of suspected breaches of the criminal law, can be deeply traumatic for those who privacy is affected and should not be exercised or extended without very good reason,” the judge said.

Judge Teehan said it was important to state that the recordings known as ‘the Lowry tapes,’ which formed the basis for a number of newspaper articles last year, do not form part of the prosecution case, so he did not accept the importance which the defence tried to attribute to them.

During Mr Lowry’s legal team’s submissions in October, they referred to two High Court actions being taken against the State by unsuccessful bidders for the second mobile phone license and also to a private London-based firm which provides “litigation funds”.

Judge Teehan said the information was that these civil proceedings are being maintained “in a champertous manner by persons or entities outside the state”.

While this information was “striking,” he said it is not relevant to these applications.

Nonetheless, he directed the courts office to write to the Garda Commissioner enclosing the information deemed appropriate by Mr Lowry’s solicitor to ask for this matter to be investigated by the gardaí­.

As it was related to the civil proceedings in the High Court and not this criminal trial, “I can find no reason to stay the trial,” he said.

Judge Teehan adjourned the case until January 20th in Clonmel and it will then be transferred to Dublin.