Revenue<\/a>, which is calculated based on USC, PRSI, a late filing charge and interest, is \u20ac20,477.<\/p>\nSentencing Grendon, Judge Orla Crowe said he was before her \u201csolely on failure to remit income tax\u201d on cash found at his home. <\/p>\n
\u201cClearly everyone has an obligation to pay income tax for the common good,\u201d she said, adding that it was a considerable amount of cash. <\/p>\n
She said the offence was at the \u201clower end of the scale\u201d and does not warrant a custodial sentence. She imposed an 18-month sentence which she suspended in full on strict conditions for three years. <\/p>\n
Det Garda Liam Enniston told the court Grendon\u2019s home was searched on January 19th, 2022. Grendon and his partner were in the house at the time. <\/p>\n
Garda\u00ed found eight white envelopes in a wardrobe in Grendon\u2019s bedroom. These contained sums of cash divided into smaller denominations. A small bundle of unwrapped cash was also found. A total of \u20ac27,725 was seized. <\/p>\n
After caution, Grendon replied that the cash could be from cars and did not belong to his wife or children. He was arrested and later interviewed four times. Grendon largely invoked his right to silence, but did offer some replies.<\/p>\n
He denied that the money was the proceeds of crime or money-laundering and said it was the legitimate proceeds of selling cars. He was also asked about a dog grooming business and said it was nothing to do with him.<\/p>\n
Grendon told garda\u00ed he did not know other cash found in the house was there. The court was told that garda\u00ed are satisfied this money belonged to Grendon\u2019s wife, who runs her own business, and it was returned to her.<\/p>\n
He later said the money he was aware of \u201ccould only be from cars\u201d and \u201cit\u2019s from me shipping cars, that\u2019s it\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was put to him that this explanation was not true and that garda\u00ed believe the cash to be the proceeds of crime and that \u201cyou are a main player in an organised crime group\u201d.<\/p>\n
Grendon denied this and said he had been in the car business for 13 years. He said he had a bill with Revenue of \u20ac1 million, including penalties, that he was trying to resolve.<\/p>\n
After his arrest, Grendon provided a letter from his accountant which outlined that he was the director of a company which had been advised to trade in cash due to difficulties at the time.<\/p>\n
Grendon has 24 previous convictions, including 18 for road traffic offences, one for assault causing harm and one for possession of drugs for sale and supply, for which he received a six-year sentence in 2001. The court heard Grendon\u2019s most recent non-driving related offence dates back more than 20 years.<\/p>\n
Enniston agreed with defence barrister Keith Spencer that an accountant\u2019s report stated that Grendon was advised to trade in cash as the company fell into difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was further accepted that Grendon complied with his bail conditions.<\/p>\n
Spencer said the accountant\u2019s report states that Grendon\u2019s company imported and sold cars, was located in Northern Ireland and registered in the UK.<\/p>\n
There was an issue with the UK tax authorities during the pandemic and, through no fault of the shareholders or directors, the filing deadline in 2021 was missed, he added.<\/p>\n
The company was effectively dissolved in the UK and the bank account was not accessible, with Grendon being advised to trade in cash where he could.<\/p>\n
Counsel said his client sought to recover money owing to the company and as there was no bank account, his only alternative was to collect it in cash.<\/p>\n
The company was briefly restored, but ultimately dissolved some months later and ceased trading.<\/p>\n
Grendon has been in the car trade since 2008, has no addiction issues and has three adult children, the court heard. He is also assisting his mother who has health issues.<\/p>\n
Spencer noted that his client originally faced a money-laundering charge, but indicated at every point that these were legitimate funds.<\/p>\n
He submitted that this case is at the lower end of the scale and asked the court to consider non-custodial options.<\/p>\n
Counsel said the money is available to be forfeited to Revenue and this would be in excess of the tax owed.<\/p>\n
He told the court his client was remanded in custody last month on an unrelated matter, for which he intends to apply for bail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A car dealer has been given a suspended sentence after admitting that he did not pay income tax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,13553,16186,615,61,60,43,11522],"class_list":["post-280850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-circuit-court","tag-director-of-public-prosecutions","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-revenue-commissioners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}