6 years jail for garlic scam

cala · 10-03-2012 1:40am

violent criminals must be laughing

Alfasud · 10-03-2012 1:40am

Howjoe1 wrote: »

THE JUDGE SAID HE HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO GIVE HIM A SIX YEAR JAIL SENTENCE. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE TERMS OF THE BANKERS JAIL SENTENCES. I'M SURE WE WILL GET GOOD OLD JUSTICE IN IRELAND.

AND YES I AM SHOUTING.

Was Larry Goodman not doing something similiar with beef collecting money for taking the same consignments round and round. He wasnt jailed.

cala · 10-03-2012 1:42am

violent criminals must be laughing

benway · 10-03-2012 1:44am

Alfasud wrote: »

Was Larry Goodman not doing something similiar with beef collecting money for taking the same consignments round and round. He wasnt jailed.

He should have been.

Honestly, after the damage white collar crime has wreaked on this country, people are still bleating about some poor misfortunate who only scammed the state out of €1.6m as if he's some kind of martyr? If he'd robbed or scammed a dole office for the same amount, would you be as kind? Because it amounts to the same thing.

Please, spare me.

He deserves everything he gets, at this stage I actually hope he rots for the full six years.

later12 · 10-03-2012 1:45am

gurramok wrote: »

Yes I see where you come from. Knock some innocent person out while killing them is lesser in the criminal legal code than tax evasion on garlic.

Garlic is irrelevant. This was a €1.6m case of tax evasion.

You seem to view this man as a sort of Barabbas, whereby penalising him would result in compromising the penalty applied to murderers and rapists. That is a claim entirely without foundation. It's most more of the same old ignorant guff.

Joe10000 · 10-03-2012 1:46am

It's an absolute joke and I don't understand the consecutive sentences when in every drug/violence/assault case you hear the sentences all seem to run concurrently.

mikemac1 · 10-03-2012 1:48am

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the import duty on garlic is "inexplicably" high and can be up to 232%.

Onions have an import duty of 9%

That's some serious duty there

Reminds me of when Marks and Spencers got into an argument over jaffa cakes and were they cakes or biscuits

There was a different VAT rate to be applied

Doc Ruby · 10-03-2012 1:50am

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

Mr Taxman hates smart asses and severe punishment is routine.

Oh yeah, the fines regularly dwarf the amounts evaded.

Folks this is almost certainly an EU wide tarriff. Maybe its not fair or just but unless you want your bread and butter made by the same people who on a daily basis jail others in "black prisons" for trying to bring injustice to light, its a neccessary evil.

The sentence is intended to discourage other large businesses like Dunnes and Tesco from trying the same stunt. Its only a pity we can't jail the Chinese suppliers as a warning to the rest of them.

dermo88 · 10-03-2012 1:54am

When I see the former chairman of Irish Nationwide - Michael 'Fingers" Fingleton swanning around Kuala Lumpur with his wife, I feel considerable bitterness and anger.

Luckily, I have enough buddies working in Malaysian Hotels to find out where he is. And when I do.....I might be able to accidentally deliberately have a medium sized quantity of ganja and crystal meth planted in there.

It might well take some explaining. Not enough for him to 'swing', just enough to make life very uncomfortable.

Austo77 · 10-03-2012 1:56am

later12 wrote: »

Garlic is irrelevant. This was a €1.6m case of tax evasion.

You seem to view this man as a sort of Barabbas, whereby penalising him would result in compromising the penalty applied to murderers and rapists. That is a claim entirely without foundation. It's most more of the same old ignorant guff.

exactly, the guy wasn't being being tried for rape or murder.

those crimes are much more difficult to both asses and to apply sentance to.

this guy was clearly guilty of an easiy calcuable monatery amount of revenue fraud over an amount of years and was duly punished according to the law.

**** him. He was only 'paying it back' because he was caught.

It may be 'only' garlic, but that's not the point. The only point here was that he was caught breaking the law over several years to the tune of 1.5 million quid.

Dudess · 10-03-2012 1:57am

The man deserves consequences - it's good that he's facing them. But six years seems much too harsh - I've read of lighter sentences for horrific violent crimes. And I wouldn't like someone to get such a harsh sentence for dole-scamming either.

Doc Ruby wrote: »

don't mess with Mr Taxman.

Unless you're a powerful elite.

gurramok · 10-03-2012 1:57am

later12 wrote: »

Garlic is irrelevant. This was a €1.6m case of tax evasion.

You seem to view this man as a sort of Barabbas, whereby penalising him would result in compromising the penalty applied to murderers and rapists. That is a claim entirely without foundation. It's most more of the same old ignorant guff.

Justify 5 years sentence for punching a man to death in contrast to a 6 yr sentence on tax evasion on garlic.

You have soundbites on Joe Duffy and living up to it.

Doc Ruby · 10-03-2012 2:00am

Dudess wrote: »

Unless you're a powerful elite.

I never liked the use of that word. In my experience the elite are those hard cases that swam through more muck and soaked up more damage than anyone else, the best of the best that made it when everyone else failed. Applying it to a bunch of inheritance-success kiddies seems like a form of dishonour.

benway · 10-03-2012 2:03am

gurramok wrote: »

Justify 5 years sentence for punching a man to death in contrast to a 6 yr sentence on tax evasion on garlic.

Pretty straightforward - a marker has to be laid down in respect of the daycent gombeens of Ireland, make it absolutely clear that sharp practice will see them landed in with the country's other "scumbags" for a considerable stretch, where they belong, no excuses. I hope he's the first of many, but it's more hope than expectation, unfortunately.

Turning manslaughter into murder and imposing life is no deterrent, because it's already clear to everyone that homicide carries a weighty penalty. It's time the business community become aware that their misdeeds will earn them substantial jail time - fines aren't enough.

JustAddWater · 10-03-2012 2:04am

How do you like them apples?

Austo77 · 10-03-2012 2:10am

Joe10000 wrote: »

It's an absolute joke and I don't understand the consecutive sentences when in every drug/violence/assault case you hear the sentences all seem to run concurrently.

I blame the Herald / Sunday World.

They know the Irish pubic like nothing more than reading about rape and gang murders in Limerick / Coolock and so have put pressure on the judiciary to extoll leniance on those found guilty of 'serious' crimes so that the convicts can be released within 2 years and can go and make some more headlines.

Garlic fraud don't sell sh1t past the first week.

Paparazzo · 10-03-2012 2:13am

blatantrereg wrote: »

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.

Hold on... How many garlic producers are out of work because we import it? And if the duty on garlic is high to protect our thriving garlic industry, why is it so low for apples?

benway · 10-03-2012 2:15am

Paparazzo wrote: »

why is it so low for apples?

Who cares? It is what it is, and this guy knowingly, wilfully, over a period of years, scammed the revenue out of a very large sum of money. End of.

johnners2981 · 10-03-2012 2:17am

I don't get why people are defending him? It might seem harsh compared to some sentences but it's not up to this judge to make sure the sentence is in proportion to other crimes.
And to the people saying 'He's creating jobs. He was just trying to stay afloat'. He's the head of Ireland's largest fruit and vegetable producer (through criminal activity), I highly doubt this was just to stay afloat.
And how many businesses went under and employees lost their jobs because they couldn't compete with this tax evading criminal?

And yeah we all want Seán FitzPatrick to be held accountable but defending this guy isn't going to help

Samba · 10-03-2012 2:22am

later12 wrote: »

Garlic is irrelevant. This was a €1.6m case of tax evasion.

Absolutely and clearly he's guilty, though I find it interesting that he wasn't found guilty of tax evasion on any other imported produce. It clearly suggests he believed the tax rate on garlic was inexplicably unreasonable, so while it might be irrelevant in the eyes of the law, it's not irrelevant in the entire context of this thread.

Clearly he failed to go through the appropriate channels to address the issue of inexplicably unreasonable garlic taxation rates however I'm curious, how does one lobby to reduce the taxation rate of I don't know let's say....garlic. where does one start?

dermo88 · 10-03-2012 2:23am

The Judge, frankly speaking needs to be dealt with with the Tommy Suharto method of justice for imposing such an excessively harsh and unrealistic sentence.

benway · 10-03-2012 2:26am

Samba wrote: »

Absolutely and clearly he's guilty, though I find it interesting that he wasn't found guilty of tax evasion on any other imported produce. It clearly suggests he believed the tax rate on garlic was inexplicably unreasonable, so while it might be irrelevant in the eyes of the law, it's not irrelevant in the entire context of this thread.

Clearly he failed to go through the appropriate channels to address the issue of inexplicably unreasonable garlic taxation rates however I'm curious, how does one lobby to reduce the taxation rate of I don't know let's say....garlic. where does one start?

One certainly doesn't start by taking advantage of the high rate and the lower rate on apples to defraud the state of millions. Fcuk that guy.

Let's be clear, he's not some noble anti tax crusader, he's just another gombeen with his eye on an easy shillin'.

Samba · 10-03-2012 2:28am

benway wrote: »

One certainly doesn't start by taking advantage of the high rate and the lower rate on apples to defraud the state of millions. Fcuk that guy.

Let's be clear, he's not some noble anti tax crusader, he's just another gombeen with his eye on an easy shillin'.

I'm not suggesting any form of tax evasion is acceptable, but you didn't answer my question.

Capt'n Midnight · 10-03-2012 2:46am

It's tax evasion so fairly clear cut

BUT

I can't remember anyone else getting consecutive sentences on a first conviction

unlike your average scumbag where sentences run concurrently no matter how many offences or previous they have :mad:

also does this mean that the developers who moved money to spouses will be doing time ?

What about all those people who didn't avail of the numerous tax anmestys after the whole offshore tax dodges promoted by the bankers

ArmaniJeanss · 10-03-2012 3:15am

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Ireland must be the only country in the world where someone can get a six year prison sentense for bringing some Garlic into the country.

No-one in the history of the state has ever got a prison sentence for 'bringing some garlic into the country'.

steddyeddy · 10-03-2012 3:20am

Well I for one am happy I can sleep easily now knowing that the police in ireland ignored peados but prosecute people hurting fruit!!

Yakult · 10-03-2012 3:39am

Got some grade A imported garlic if anyone is looking, 3g for 50. Best stuff around.

Tayla · 10-03-2012 4:02am

Google this judges previous cases.

The recent child neglect case the mother got 4 years with 2 1/2 suspended.

Paedophile priest back last year with nearly 300000 images of child porn got 3 years, another paedophile got 3 years for abusing a 7 year old, another paedophile who abused his granddaughter repeatedly got 3 one year sentences to run concurrently.

WHAT THE ****?

Cardinal Richelieu · 10-03-2012 5:02am

blatantrereg wrote: »

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.

No one grows it commercially because its too wet, why do you think most european garlic is grown in Spain and France? That argument is like the fellow who manages to grown a peach tree after 3 years of trying and then expects to see Irish peaches in the supermarket.

Not surprised your man got convicted, he hadn't got a great rep in the business.

YFlyer · 10-03-2012 9:21am

mikom wrote: »

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

Those vampires

6 years jail for garlic scam

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