Judge warns former tax inspector pursued by ACC that he may face jail

A HIGH Court judge has found that an accountant and former Revenue tax inspector, being pursued by ACCBank and the Revenue for more than €4.5 million, gave “untruthful” evidence about his assets.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly warned him he would be jailed unless he provided full details of those assets within two weeks.

Mr Justice Kelly also expressed “grave doubts” as to whether a 2009 “friendly” divorce obtained by Shay Daly and his wife Eileen was genuine.

Mr Daly continued to live in the family home some days each week and, while allegedly estranged from his wife, bought properties with his own funds and gifted them to her at no cost.

The judge said he found Mr Daly’s evidence to the court untruthful in many respects.

He was concerned there was a “contrived state of affairs” in many respects, including the divorce and whether a petition by Mr Daly for bankruptcy in Northern Ireland last October was intended to mislead the authorities there into granting “a quickie bankruptcy”.

The court heard the Revenue here has raised assessments for €2 million in alleged unpaid taxes, including income and capital gains taxes, against Mr Daly between 1996 and 2007 and is opposing his petition for bankruptcy.

The Revenue raised the assessments as a result of what it was told after investigating some of Mr Daly’s clients, the court heard.

Mr Daly yesterday denied his divorce was contrived and said he and his wife ceased to cohabit from 2005. He agreed he had gifted several properties to her, including while they were estranged after 2005. He had done so because he was “no good” at collecting rents.

That was “extraordinarily generous” behaviour, the judge remarked.

A qualified accountant with an address at Woodleigh Park, Model Farm Road, Cork, Mr Daly (53) worked in Revenue for eight years.

He was before the Commercial Court for cross-examination about his assets as part of ACC’s move to enforce a €2.5 million judgment obtained against him in 2009 over unpaid loans and guarantees.

ACC had queried whether a statement of assets from Mr Daly, which outlined interests by him in three properties, represented a full account of his assets.

Mr Justice Kelly said yesterday the statement of assets given by Mr Daly to the bank on foot of a court order was “manifestly wrong” and Mr Daly was in danger of being held in contempt of court and jailed.

He adjourned the cross-examination to allow Mr Daly to comply with orders to provide ACC within 14 days with documents, including all materials concerning the divorce, bankruptcy, Revenue assessments and a large number of property transactions.

Lyndon MacCann SC, for ACC, questioned Mr Daly about a large number of properties, companies and partnerships.

Mr Daly agreed he had an involvement in several of those at various stages and also said he had not listed certain properties as assets because he considered them valueless. Nor did he consider his private pension and public service pension as assets.