Michael Lowry and Garuda fined €25,000 over tax offences

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

Independent TD Michael Lowry and his refrigeration company, Garuda Ltd, were each convicted of delivering an incorrect corporation tax return and failing to keep proper accounts. The jury returned its verdicts at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on 26 June 2018, the 12th day of the trial.

Judge Martin Nolan fined Lowry €15,000 and Garuda €10,000 and disqualified Lowry from acting as a director of the company for three years. The judge said a custodial sentence was not appropriate. The jury could not reach decisions on four remaining charges, which the State was not proceeding with.

Lowry had pleaded not guilty to four charges of filing incorrect tax returns and one charge of failing to keep proper accounts. He also pleaded not guilty on Garuda’s behalf to three similar tax charges and one accounts charge. The charges included incorrect accounts and a corporation tax computation for 2002, an incorrect corporation tax return for 2006, and failing to keep proper books between 28 August 2002 and 3 August 2007.

The State’s case was that Garuda received £248,624 in commission in August 2002. It was alleged that Lowry arranged for the payment to go to a third party through an Isle of Man trust and that the accounts were falsified in 2007 to show it as received in 2006. The judge said Lowry’s explanation was that he had instructed a staff member to raise an invoice in 2002 and assumed the money had entered the accounts.

Revenue witness Henry Oliver assessed the payment as income earned by Lowry, but the defence said it was commission owed to Garuda. Lowry and Garuda successfully challenged the assessment before the appeals commission in April 2015, reducing it to nil. Following that evidence, defence counsel Michael O’Higgins applied for a direction of not guilty; the State did not oppose the application and the judge withdrew the charge.