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[1] Francis Gerard D'Arcy, you have pleaded guilty to four counts of cheating the public revenue contrary to common law and it is now my responsibility to sentence you for those offences.
[2] Each offence relates to an individual tax year in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 when you under-declared income tax due to HM Revenue and Customs ("HMRC"). In 2009 the under-declaration was �37,906.80, in 2010 it was �20,620.00, in 2011 it was �147,843.00 and in 2012 it was �252,555.00, a total for the 4 years in question of �458,920.00.
[3] The background to your offences was that in recent years a large number of claims relating to deafness have been launched by members and former members of the armed forces and the police service alleging the provision of inadequate protection while firing weapons in the course of their duties leading to a diminution in their hearing acuity and other associated hearing problems. Expert evidence has been required for both the claimants and the defendants and you were instructed on behalf of very many claimants to examine and report on their claims.
[7] Mr McCollum QC who presented the case for the prosecution with admirable restraint, acknowledged that when confronted with your actions you admitted what you had done and then co-operated by making documents available to the investigators. However, he did not accept that these offences were, as has been claimed, solely the result of inefficient book-keeping but submitted that there had been deliberate cheating, a proposition which, for the reasons earlier given, I have no hesitation in accepting.
[8] These were serious crimes and no less so because the intended victim was the public at large rather than a single private individual or company. Mr McCollum submitted and Mr O'Donoghue readily accepted that the custody threshold has been passed. I consider that the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment is inevitable given the period over which the crimes were committed, the total amount involved and, as I find, the deliberate nature of the evasion.
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Common Room
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