A DUBLIN food importer was yesterday jailed for six years for failing to pay €1.6 million in tax due on Chinese garlic, which attracts an “inexplicable” rate of import duty 24 times higher than other fruit and veg.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told Paul Begley (46), of Begley Brothers in Blanchardstown, evaded paying duty on more than 1,000 tonnes of garlic from China by having it mislabelled as apples.
The court heard the duty on garlic imports was up to 232 per cent, compared with just over 9 per cent for other fruits and vegetables.
Imposing the maximum jail sentence of five years on one charge of tax evasion and a further year on a second count, Judge Martin Nolan said it gave him “no joy at all to jail a decent man”. He described Begley, of Woodlock, Redgap, Rathcoole, as a “success story” and an “asset to the country”, but pointed out he had engaged in a “grave” and “huge” tax evasion scheme.
Begley had pleaded guilty to four sample counts of evading customs duty between September 2003 and October 2007. All told, he imported more than 1,000 tonnes of garlic.
The tax evasion was uncovered in October 2007 when a Dublin Port customs officers opened a container said to hold 18 tonnes of apples and two tonnes of garlic. Inside were 21 tonnes of garlic, but no apples.
The duty on garlic is €1,200 per tonne and an additional 9.6 per cent of the total. The outstanding tax on just this consignment was €25,000. Pleading for leniency, defence counsel David Keane highlighted Begley’s charity work, labelling the rate of duty on garlic “inexplicable”.
Judge Nolan said the import tax “may or may not” be excessive, but stressed it was for the Oireachtas to decide, and not individuals.
The garlic tax is not, however, set by the Government, but by the EU. According to a Revenue spokesman, it “emanates from World Trade Agreement rates and it’s to do with industry protection within the EU”.
One reason for the tax is the impact Chinese garlic imports have had on growers in Spain and France.
Producers there have said they cannot compete with the high volume and low production costs in China. Spain is the largest grower of garlic in Europe, producing more than 100,000 tonnes annually. Farmers there have warned Chinese imports were killing their business.
The problem of garlic smuggling is now widespread across the EU, and the European Anti-Fraud office, Olaf, has repeatedly impounded garlic consignments illegally imported from China and mislabelled as other vegetables, most frequently onions. In recent months significant amounts of Chinese garlic have been impounded in Sweden and Poland, among other countries.
