The Criminal Assets Bureau has secured judgment for €424,987 against a man serving a seven-year sentence on charges of possessing heroin with intent to supply others.
The judgment against Karl Dempsey, with addresses at Heritage Glens, Kells, Co Meath, and Stanaway Road, Crumlin, Dublin, is for income tax and interest due on foot of a final assessment for the three years up to April 5th, 1999.
Dempsey is in prison after pleading guilty to the unlawful possession of €50,000 worth of heroin with intent to supply others on October 2nd, 1998.
Following a series of hearings in the High Court, CAB yesterday obtained judgment for £334,706.
Lawyers for Dempsey had argued that a sequence of correspondence between his solicitor and CAB was a sufficient invocation of the appeal procedure of the 1997 Taxes Consolidation Act.
However, Mr Justice Finnegan said if a taxpayer intending to appeal did so in such ambiguous terms that his intention was not understood by the Revenue authorities acting reasonably and in good faith, it seemed appropriate that the consequences for this must be borne by the taxpayer.
He was satisfied that the Revenue had acted in good faith and the onus rested on Dempsey to make clear what was being done.