6 years jail for garlic scam

endabob1 wrote: »

This is the bit that made me raise eyebrows



So the total debt would have been paid off in under 2 years but instead he'll be in proson costing the tax payer??

They broke the law, fessed up and co-operated has been paying his due.
Fine him heavily, give him a suspended scentence and let him get back to running his business.

Leaving aside the case of persons convicted of serious drugs offences - offences which are, in some respects, at least, sui generis - a sentence of this gravity is generally reserved for serious offences against the person, such as manslaughter, rape, serious assault and false imprisonment or aggravated burglary offences. While the latter offence overlaps with the offences of theft and robbery, the reason it is treated so severely by the law is because of the fact that the victims have generally been terrified in the process and by reason of the long term impact which such offences have on the peace of mind of the persons affected. In that respect, burglary is in truth regarded as an offence which is more akin to an offence against the person than a pure theft offence simpliciter.

... serious offences against the person - involving as they do the unlawful use of violence - are nearly always in a separate category of offending, involving as they do moral delinquency of a high order. In recent weeks this Court, for example, has had to deal with offences ranging from the penetration of a seven year old girl by her father, the false imprisonment of an elderly couple in the course of an aggravated burglary which involved elements of unusually cruel and sadistic violence, the slashing and permanent disfigurement of an innocent young man who was callously left to fight for his life by his assailant to the repeated kicking of a victim lying prostrate on the ground by multiple assailants over several hours until he lapsed into a coma and died.

Offences against the person of this kind accordingly involve an affront to human dignity, a key constitutional objective protected by the Preamble to the Constitution, a violation of the integrity of the person (Article 40.3.2 of the Constitution) and, as often as not, a violation of the dwelling (Article 40.5 of the Constitution): see generally the discussion of this topic for this Court by Hardiman J. in The People (Director of Public Prosecutions) v. Barnes [2006] IECCA 165, [2007] 3 I.R. 130 at 144-149. These considerations must weigh heavily with any sentencing judge. In the case of offences involving public revenue - such as taxation offences and social welfare fraud - the level of moral delinquency will not often approach that particularly elevated level, although, of course, it can do so.

This is not at all to suggest that crimes involving the loss of public revenue are somehow victimless crimes. Quite the contrary: offences of this kind strike at the heart of the principles of equity, equality of treatment and social solidarity on which the entire edifice of the taxation and social security systems lean. This is especially so at a time of emergency so far as the public finances are concerned.

The collapse of US investment firm Lehman Brothers in September 2008 triggered the onset of a global financial crisis which, in turn, has ushered in a contraction in our economy which is unparalleled in living memory. Faced with enormous demands on the public purse from the associated banking collapse and a continuing structural public deficit, the State has struggled during this period with a series of fiscal emergencies. To their great credit, the Irish people have as a consequence stoically endured significant taxation increases, reductions in social security payments and retrenchment at all levels in the provision of social services, as the State endeavours to restore an equilibrium in the public finances.

All of this calls for a high level of social solidarity. We have seen from elsewhere how widespread tax evasion by the wealthy and well-to-do can gravely threaten social solidarity and, as a consequence, the very stability of a state itself. That solidarity would also be gravely endangered if taxpayers were led to believe that social security fraud was rampant or that, when detected, it would not be dealt with severely. By the same token, social security fraud impacts heavily on those who are most in need, since, by definition, it saps public confidence in the system and, of necessity, erodes the total sums available for the needy and those genuinely reliant on such payments.

As an Irish passport holder, the appellant owed a “fidelity to the nation and loyalty to the State”: see Article 9(2) of the Constitution. Especially in a time of fiscal emergency, that fidelity and loyalty demanded that this social solidarity be respected. The appellant’s widespread, persistent and systematic fraud of the social security system set that fidelity and loyalty at naught. As such, his conduct was gravely wrong and the sentences to be imposed must reflect this consideration.

In the case of offences involving the public purse, deterrence plays an important value in the sentencing process. In the context of frauds upon the public revenue, deterrence is an important consideration, in that it is a necessary quid pro quo of social solidarity. It gives an assurance to the hard-pressed bona fide taxpayer that the State will both collect and distribute its revenue fairly and that those who defraud will be sternly dealt with. Some element of severity is necessary to ensure that taxpayers will pay the State what has been deemed by law to be properly due and to assure those who rely on social security payments that public support for the needy will not be undermined by an official culture which either turns a blind eye to those who commit illegal tax evasion on the one hand, or social security fraud on the other,or which is indifferent to these consequences.

We therefore suggest for the future guidance of sentencing courts that significant and systematic frauds directed upon the public revenue - whether illegal tax evasion on the one hand or social security fraud on the other - should generally meet with an immediate and appreciable custodial sentence, although naturally the sentence to be imposed in any given case must have appropriate regard to the individual circumstances of each accused.

spockety wrote: »

I'd also point out that these crimes ended in 2007, 4 or 5 years before that edict was handed down.

steddyeddy wrote: »

We have never dealt with the big ones though. There never seems to be a call for this.