6 years jail for garlic scam

CB19Kevo · 09-03-2012 8:49pm #1

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0309/begleyp.html

''The head of Ireland's largest fruit and vegetable producers has been jailed for six years for a €1.6m scam involving the importation of garlic.
Paul Begley, 46, avoided paying customs duty on over 1,000 tonnes of garlic from China by having them labelled as apples.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the import duty on garlic is "inexplicably" high and can be up to 232%.
In contrast, onions have an import duty of 9%.
The maximum sentence for the offence is five years in prison or a fine of three times the value of the goods.
Judge Martin Nolan imposed the maximum term on one count and one year on another count.''

Is this a bit excessive when you would get a lesser sentence for a serious assault ?

El Weirdo · 09-03-2012 8:50pm

It fucking stinks.

Sindri · 09-03-2012 8:51pm

Import duty should be lower. Simple as.

WindSock · 09-03-2012 8:51pm

Is he in Cloverhill?

woodoo · 09-03-2012 8:52pm

It would take your breath away.... tut tut tut

MickySticks · 09-03-2012 8:53pm

Perhaps the judge is a vampire.

MickySticks · 09-03-2012 8:53pm

WindSock wrote: »

Is he in Cloverhill?

No, Mountjoy. :cool:

Birneybau · 09-03-2012 8:54pm

Is he a repeat offender? You know the way garlic can repeat on you?

I'll get my coat.

mikom · 09-03-2012 8:54pm

And still not one banker jailed........

PCPhoto · 09-03-2012 8:55pm

he got a strong sentence which will more than likely be reduced on appeal ...but it will deter others from attempting to defraud the revenue.

Revenue are spending hundreds of thousands ...maybe more ...on keeping a close eye on imports and gaining the correct amount of money from all imports - the government is trying to squeeze every penny out of people and those that try to cheat the system should get a similar sentence ...our courts are too soft as far as I'm concerned we need strong deterrents to try stop people breaking the law.

The law is there for a reason !!

Monty Burnz · 09-03-2012 8:55pm

mikom wrote: »

And still not one banker jailed........

My thoughts exactly. Which scam cost the taxpayer more?

Austo77 · 09-03-2012 8:57pm

Serves him right imo

Outkast_IRE · 09-03-2012 8:57pm

So he knowingly broke the law and defrauded the state and people think its a harsh treatment , in my opinion its the same as someone defrauding welfare or revenue by outright lying to them.

Ghandee · 09-03-2012 8:57pm

IM0 · 09-03-2012 8:58pm

CB19Kevo wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0309/begleyp.html

''The head of Ireland's largest fruit and vegetable producers has been jailed for six years for a €1.6m scam involving the importation of garlic.
Paul Begley, 46, avoided paying customs duty on over 1,000 tonnes of garlic from China by having them labelled as apples.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the import duty on garlic is "inexplicably" high and can be up to 232%.
In contrast, onions have an import duty of 9%.
The maximum sentence for the offence is five years in prison or a fine of three times the value of the goods.
Judge Martin Nolan imposed the maximum term on one count and one year on another count.''

Is this a bit excessive when you would get a lesser sentence for a serious assault ?

AntiRip · 09-03-2012 9:01pm

So he scams the state for 1.6m and now the state (us) will pay roughly e500,000 to jail him.

Justice wins again yeah!

wexie · 09-03-2012 9:01pm

“It gives me no joy at all to jail a decent man," Judge Nolan said.

He said Begley is a “success story” an “asset to the country” in supporting the economy and providing employment. He noted Begley’s generosity and that he donates money to homeless charities and the St Vincent de Paul.

I wonder how many bankers, developers or politicians this can be said about....

09-03-2012 9:03pm

So, not once did anyone take a look to check if they were actually apples? Great job, customs!

IM0 · 09-03-2012 9:04pm

ail never pay! :mad:

Doc Ruby · 09-03-2012 9:06pm

Tarriffs like that are usually protective tarriffs to stop cheap Chinese imports flooding local markets and putting local producers out of business, similar extreme duties apply to things like clothing imports specifically from China.

And in other news, don't mess with Mr Taxman.

blatantrereg · 09-03-2012 9:06pm

It's easy to grow garlic in Ireland. I did it before myself. Sure the stuff starts to grow if you leave it in the cupboard too long.

That right there is good enough argument for a very high import tax. He's killing local producers and killing anybody trying to import without breaking the law. It's hardly victimless crime. It's also very deliberate and premeditated by nature.

He'll probably get the punishment greatly reduced on appeal anyway.

krudler · 09-03-2012 9:08pm

shoulda murdered someone before he went to trial, would have been suspended then.

Irish judges: tough on white collar crimes, soft touches on actual criminals.

senorwipesalot · 09-03-2012 9:09pm

Jesus,these golden delicious fcukin stink.

wexie · 09-03-2012 9:14pm

...are there really any local garlic producers though?

I'm willing to believe there might be the odd local artisan grower with a little niche of the local's farmer's market but any decent size commercial operators?

Don't get me wrong, breaking the law is breaking the law. But given the seemingly ludicrous and completely unjustified import tarriff (much more likely we have local onion growers) I can see where he's coming from.

Do our courts not have more important things to focus on?

Oh...and something else....how in the name of everything that is good and holy did the customs agents not smell?

Doc Ruby · 09-03-2012 9:17pm

wexie wrote: »

...are there really any local garlic producers though?

Might be an EU-wide tarriff, no point in applying it in one country and not in the others.

henryporter · 09-03-2012 9:19pm

Considering that your average garlic from China costs about 30cent in the shops that a lot of garlic or onions whatever way you look at it

wexie · 09-03-2012 9:19pm

ah yes.....

blatantrereg · 09-03-2012 9:26pm

wexie wrote: »

...are there really any local garlic producers though?

I'm willing to believe there might be the odd local artisan grower with a little niche of the local's farmer's market but any decent size commercial operators?

Don't get me wrong, breaking the law is breaking the law. But given the seemingly ludicrous and completely unjustified import tarriff (much more likely we have local onion growers) I can see where he's coming from.

Do our courts not have more important things to focus on?

Oh...and something else....how in the name of everything that is good and holy did the customs agents not smell?

But that's the point isn't it? If there were any they were killed by Begley and maybe others doing the same thing. And thanks to him and the like, it's not commercially viable to be local producer outside of the small local farmer's market niche.

I really think the tarriff is justified. How can it be a good idea to import something we can produce easily ourselves? Aside from the obvious economic and environmental considerations, there are serious health concerns as well.

As a developing nation, China has relatively low sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards for its agricultural goods. Corruption in the government, such as the bribery of former head of the State Food and Drug Administration Zheng Xiaoyu, has also complicated China's regulation difficulties.[35] Excessive pesticide residues, low food hygiene, unsafe additives, contamination with heavy metals and other contaminants, and misuse of veterinary drugs have all led to trade restrictions with developed nations such as Japan, the United States, and the European Union.[36] These problems have also led to public outcry, such as in the melamine-tainted dog food scare and the carcinogenic-tainted seafood import restriction, leading to measures such as the "China-free" label.[37]

About one tenth of China's farmland is contaminated with heavy metals, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China.[38]

Incidentally I've read that crops are grown separately for the elite in China, because they are well aware of the issues with most of the crops they grow there. Dont remember the source or whether it was credible...must see if I can find it.

ejmaztec · 09-03-2012 9:30pm

He'd have probably got a smaller sentence for smuggling weed.

CorkBabe33 · 09-03-2012 9:31pm

When I heard this on the news this evening I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1st! What a joke. People who murder, rape, assault.... get sentences that are way less than that. The judges in this country haven't got a clue about the real world as this judge just proved...

Big Nasty · 09-03-2012 9:31pm

He broke the law and evaded tax, no question but Johnny Scumbag with 37 previous still gets away with a suspended. :mad:

eth0 · 09-03-2012 9:32pm

Sindri wrote: »

Import duty should be lower. Simple as.

There is no fcuking need to go to China for fooking garlic. you can grow it here

Import duty should be 500%

gurramok · 09-03-2012 9:34pm

Which is of utmost public importance? You choose.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0216/ogormanm.html

A former champion boxer has been sentenced to five years in prison for punching and killing a man.
Jonathan Smith, 19, from Windtown Crescent in Navan, Co Meath, pleaded guilty at Trim Circuit Criminal Court to the manslaughter of Martin O'Gorman at Academy Street in Navan on 21 June 2010

Or 6 years for tax evasion on garlic imports?

minidazzler · 09-03-2012 9:34pm

PCPhoto wrote: »

The law is there for a reason !!

Let's be fair, that's not true for all laws, and besides, the law should be just. 6 year sentence for importing something legal but doing it to avoid paying a duty which is far too much?

I'd like to know why it's such a high duty?

newmug · 09-03-2012 9:42pm

Another example of how ludicrous the Irish legal system is.

forfuxsake · 09-03-2012 9:55pm

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

So he knowingly broke the law and defrauded the state and people think its a harsh treatment , in my opinion its the same as someone defrauding welfare or revenue by outright lying to them.

True but weren't two people jailed for three months for defrauding the welfare system last week.

TBH I think one was too harsh and one was too soft, I would have given them both three years, suspending the last two if they agreed to pay everything back with interest and huge fines.

benway · 09-03-2012 10:08pm

Here, if he was some guy who'd managed to scam €160k off the social, ye'd be looking for the "scumbag's" head on a silver platter. But €1.6m for an oootraprenooor and daycent oul' schkin and not a bother.

Some of you are making the mistake of holding sentences for different offenses by the same standard, and judging without knowing the facts of the cases you're talking about as well, but that's pretty much standard round here.

My name is URL · 09-03-2012 10:14pm

gurramok wrote: »

Which is of utmost public importance? You choose.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0216/ogormanm.html

A former champion boxer has been sentenced to five years in prison for punching and killing a man.
Jonathan Smith, 19, from Windtown Crescent in Navan, Co Meath, pleaded guilty at Trim Circuit Criminal Court to the manslaughter of Martin O'Gorman at Academy Street in Navan on 21 June 2010

Or 6 years for tax evasion on garlic imports?

This x 1000

You could mention hundreds of similar examples too. It really shows what is more important to those that we employ to provide us with the services that ensure that our society is a safe one to live in.

6 years to lock a man up for evading that amount of tax, at a massive cost to us; just to give everyone else the message. While killers and child abusers walk free; unreformed and a lot earlier.

It's a joke, but the worst thing is that many don't see it as a problem.

spockety · 09-03-2012 10:14pm

benway wrote: »

Here, if he was some guy who'd managed to scam €160k off the social, ye'd be looking for the "scumbag's" head on a silver platter. But €1.6m for an oootraprenooor and daycent oul' schkin and not a bother.

Some of you are making the mistake of holding sentences for different offenses by the same standard, and judging without knowing the facts of the cases you're talking about as well, but that's pretty much standard round here.

He co operated fully, was paying everything owed back, pleaded guilty, has no priors, a list of character witnesses as long as your leg etc. they are the facts. It's mental.

And to add, the purpose of prison is to rehabilitate, not set examples. How is a custodial sentence going to help here? Do you think if he got a fine he is likely to re offend? My hole.

kowloon · 09-03-2012 10:18pm

Going to start labelling my explosives as garlic so.

later12 · 09-03-2012 10:18pm

Garlic may be petty, but in fairness a €1.6 million tax evasion bill is not.

Note that the tax in question is not a personal cost of doing business in the strict sense. These distributers are merely tax collectors for the government, in a similar way to Tesco and Dunnes acting as tax collectors for Vat.

The cost of import duty is passed on to merchants and thereafter, effectively, to the consumer as a matter of course. This man simply decided, for whatever reasons, that he wasn't going to pay the state.

He deserves punishment in his own right. The magnitude of his guilt is not to be determined relative to other crimes irrelevant to this case.

If other crimes are penalised in a way that is perceived to be disproportionately insufficient, that's an issue for those cases. And if the penalty in this case is perceived to be too onerous, then that is a matter for the court taking this and similar cases into account.

But the guilt or otherwise of the likes of Sean FitzPatrick or Bertie Ahern or David Drumm do not detract from the guilt of this individual for tax evasion.

gurramok · 09-03-2012 10:20pm

spockety wrote: »

He co operated fully, was paying everything owed back, pleaded guilty, has no priors, a list of character witnesses as long as your leg etc. they are the facts. It's mental.

And to add, the purpose of prison is to rehabilitate, not set examples. How is a custodial sentence going to help here? Do you think if he got a fine he is likely to re offend? My hole.

And he worked

:pac:

wil · 09-03-2012 10:22pm

compare and contrast 6 years suspended for supply of heroin.

Banana republic, septic isle,

Glad to see the place again, its a pity nothings changed:(

gurramok · 09-03-2012 10:22pm

later12 wrote: »

Garlic may be petty, but in fairness a €1.6 million tax evasion bill is not.

Money as in tax evasion takes the high ground over morality(killing a person), nice to see you have the welfare of society in your mind.

benway · 09-03-2012 10:22pm

spockety wrote: »

He co operated fully, was paying everything owed back, pleaded guilty, has no priors, a list of character witnesses as long as your leg etc. they are the facts. It's mental.

And in the current fiscal climate, gross tax fraud is a particularly detrimental offence. Message sent, if it can happen to "the head of Ireland's largest fruit and vegetable producers", it can happen to anyone. Would pretty much guarantee it'll be cut down to two years suspended on appeal. What other people are getting for other crimes is utterly irrelevant.

Tusky · 09-03-2012 10:26pm

Quote:
Originally Posted by CB19Kevo View Post
http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0309/begleyp.html

''The head of Ireland's largest fruit and vegetable producers has been jailed for six years for a €1.6m scam involving the importation of garlic.
Paul Begley, 46, avoided paying customs duty on over 1,000 tonnes of garlic from China by having them labelled as apples.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the import duty on garlic is "inexplicably" high and can be up to 232%.
In contrast, onions have an import duty of 9%.
The maximum sentence for the offence is five years in prison or a fine of three times the value of the goods.
Judge Martin Nolan imposed the maximum term on one count and one year on another count.''

IM0 wrote: »

Maximum sentence is five years per count. He was up on more than one count. He got a five year sentence and a one year sentence to be served consecutively (one after the other).

gerryo777 · 09-03-2012 10:27pm

later12 wrote: »

But the guilt or otherwise of the likes of Sean FitzPatrick or Bertie Ahern or David Drumm do not detract from the guilt of this individual for tax evasion.

But you'll never see any of the above in jail. Not a chance.

Over 3 years later and Drumm is still on the run in America, thumbing his nose at the Irish people.

amacachi · 09-03-2012 10:33pm

How long do people generally get for importing the dodgy fags?

Also if something is unbelievably easy to grow here then it's a reason to not have a big import duty. If it's really, really easy and yet people want to be paid more than someone who has to get it transported halfway around the world then they can take a hit on their margins.

johnwalters · 09-03-2012 10:34pm

PCPhoto wrote: »

he got a strong sentence which will more than likely be reduced on appeal ...but it will deter others from attempting to defraud the revenue.

Revenue are spending hundreds of thousands ...maybe more ...on keeping a close eye on imports and gaining the correct amount of money from all imports - the government is trying to squeeze every penny out of people and those that try to cheat the system should get a similar sentence ...our courts are too soft as far as I'm concerned we need strong deterrents to try stop people breaking the law.

The law is there for a reason !!

what a loser. I suppose your some stale little civil servant

spockety · 09-03-2012 10:34pm

benway wrote: »

And in the current fiscal climate, gross tax fraud is a particularly detrimental offence. Message sent, if it can happen to "the head of Ireland's largest fruit and vegetable producers", it can happen to anyone. Would pretty much guarantee it'll be cut down to two years suspended on appeal. What other people are getting for other crimes is utterly irrelevant.

I never said anything about other people or other crimes, show me where I did?

cock robin · 09-03-2012 10:36pm

Prison is not a place for rehabilitation or anything like it, it is a place of detention for those that transgress. This greedy fcuk has a very successful business a nice standard of living and still had to rob the state. Call me old fashioned but the law is the law. I know all about the bankers and how none of them have been charged to date, that is a seperate issue. He co-operated when he was charged. This so called pillar of the community concocted a scheme to defraud the state (us) at a time when others would give their right arm for his lavish lifestyle. So fcuk him.

6 years jail for garlic scam

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