STUD farm owners who were found crossing into Northern Ireland with £500,000 in £20 notes have lost their Supreme Court appeal against a tax inspector's request to two banks for details of their affairs.
The owners, a married couple, were stopped by Irish Customs officers when crossing the Border on June 16th, 1986. The cash was seized and subsequently returned, subject to a deduction of £30,000. This followed the institution by the Revenue Commissioners of criminal proceedings which were disposed of summarily on a guilty plea and of civil proceedings which were settled by the 30,000 deduction.
Mr Justice Keane, giving the Supreme Court's verdict, said the Revenue's investigation branch was informed by inspectors dealing with the couple's tax affairs that they appeared to have substantial assets which could not be accounted for by the income shown on their returns.
A tax inspector asked to see statements of affairs from March 1970 to March 1986 with details of bank accounts in the names of the couple and their children. He also asked for outstanding returns of income for 1985/86 and for details about deposit interest.
The inspector had stated that while the return of income was delivered, no substantive reply was received to his letter. He also claimed that in April 1991, he received a telephone call from a confidential source".
The source told him the man had "substantial assets outside the country" and to examine accounts in a branch of Allied Irish Bank. The source also said most of the man's income was derived from horse dealing. The informant said the man made £1 million from a single transaction and the £500,000 seized by Customs did not belong to somebody else as the man claimed. Some information documentation was later received.
The man denied he had substantial assets outside the country or that his income was from horse dealing. He denied making £1 million from one transaction The £500,000 in cash found in his possession by Customs was money he was holding for US owners, he said.
Upholding the earlier rejection by the High Court of the couple's arguments, Mr Justice Keane said it was clear that grounds for an investigation by the Revenue of the bank accounts existed.