Derek Floyd’s VAT fraud sentence reduced on appeal

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Derek Floyd had his sentence for VAT fraud reduced by the Court of Appeal on 16 December 2014 to five years’ imprisonment with one year suspended, alongside three years for handling stolen property with the final eight months suspended.

Floyd had been convicted of 15 counts of making incorrect VAT returns and 12 counts of claiming VAT rebates to which he was not entitled. The court also considered his separate sentence for handling stolen property, describing that offence as serious and requiring substantial pre-planning.

The Court of Appeal held that the original six-year sentence for the VAT offences, with one year suspended, contained an error in principle. It substituted the reduced sentence while suspending the final eight months of the handling sentence because Floyd was a first-time offender.