A SENIOR Revenue official has been sentenced to three years for his role in a vehicle registration tax scam that defrauded over €340,000 from the State.
Gerard Blaney (56) of McKee Avenue, Finglas, in Dublin had been working for the Revenue since 1973 and working for the VRT office since June 2003, where he was responsible for running the office and training staff.
He was in charge of ensuring the details filled out on a tax form, VRT 3, matched the make, model, specification and manufacturer’s statistical codes of the vehicle in question.
Det Sgt Fergal Harrington from the Criminal Assets Bureau told Dominic McGinn SC, prosecuting, that Blaney received €100 in a brown envelope from one car dealer and free services and tyres from another, when he did not inspect a number of expensive vehicles against the VRT 3 form that had been filled out for it. The forms had downgraded the specifications of the vehicles so that a lower VRT would be charged.
Det Sgt Harrington said that each vehicle had a market value above €80,000 and the fact that Blaney “overlooked” the differences and processed the form without inspecting the vehicle meant that the VRT on each car was reduced by between €4,000 and €5,000.
He estimated the scam resulted in a total loss to revenue of €341,206. Blaney received between €1,000 and €1,500.
Blaney pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to eight charges that he did knowingly concern himself in the evasion of vehicle registration tax of various vehicles and one charge of corruption at the VRT, Revenue Office, Tallaght on dates between June 2nd, 2005, and June 26th, 2007.
Blaney was initially suspended by the Revenue but he is now retired.
Two other men, the car dealers that Blaney processed the forms for, have denied the charges and will stand trial in October this year.
Judge Patrick McCartan said the offence represented “a very gross breach of public trust by someone who should have known better”.
He said there was still no explanation as to why Blaney had “resorted to and allowed himself to get involved in what was clearly a foolish escapade”.
The judge also said that a “clear message” must be sent to others working in the public service that this type of behaviour is not acceptable.
He suspended the final two years of the sentence on condition that Blaney keep the peace and be of good behaviour for five years.