A BUILDING contractor who “faked” a set of invoice books and failed to make VAT returns of more than €110,000 has been jailed for nine months.
Alan James Hynes claimed he panicked and had made a false set of books for a four-month period between November 2005 and February 2006 during which his company took in €480,000.
Hynes, of AJH Construction, was investigated by the Revenue Commissioners office on March 9th, 2006, as part of a general audit. Revenue investigator Shiela Hanley told Letterkenny District Court that, on the face of it, the books of AJH Construction were in order.
However, further investigation found large sums of money had been paid by building contractors to the accused which had not been disclosed. When investigators challenged Hynes about the non-payment of the VAT returns, he admitted he had not paid the returns and that he was operating a second set of “false” books.
The court heard Hynes had two bank accounts with both ACCBank and Bank of Ireland and had tried to hide income from his business.
Investigators found that VAT returns of €43,800 had not been paid on income between November and December of 2005.
A further €65,673 in VAT returns on estimated income had not been paid for the months of January and February, 2006.
During the time he had paid a total of €14,800 in VAT returns.
Hynes said he completely accepted what he had done was wrong and that he had panicked and written up the false invoice books over a two-day period.
“I know what I did was wrong but I panicked. I am not denying that I did not pay VAT,” he said.
Hynes said his company went into liquidation as a result of the investigation by the Revenue Commissioners, with the loss of eight jobs.
The court heard Hynes had since had a serious motorbike accident and was confined to a wheelchair for a number of months and was now unable to work.
Judge Séamus Hughes asked Hynes what he had done with the money which he had failed to declare. He said he had pumped the majority of it back into his business, buying trailers, scaffolding and other equipment.
“I don’t have invoices for what I spent the money on because I lost them when my office was being renovated,” said Hynes.
Judge Hughes said this was fraud on a “massive, massive scale” and wanted to send out a message to dissuade other people from a similar offence.
