TAX scam

It's nearly six years since the Irish Revenue Commissioners started investigating a tax-scam in the construction industry. It was a well-organised fraud in which the system for ensuring the tax-compliance of sub-contractors was abused. Today Karl Holmes (age 38 from Home Lawn, Tallaght) became the 32nd person to be prosecuted for his role - he was jailed for 12 months at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. There's another 58 to come. In a similar case another 120 people were tracked down for their role in claiming back tax for work that was never done. The junior recruits usually got between €500 and €2,000 for claiming back tax rebates worth on average just over €8,000. Some of the €1.2 million targeted by the organised fraudsters was stopped before being paid out. Nearly all the 'recruits' ended up paying the cash back - all were too afraid to name the heavy-weight criminals who got them involved in the scam. Two professional criminals involved, Sean Dunne and Anthony Spratt, are now dead. In the meantime the likes of Holmes, who defrauded the taxman of €58,000, are being slowly rolled up by the wheels the justice.