MagicMum.com

Family also friends of mine , a nicer man you could not meet x my heart goes out to family today, ok he did something wrong but sentence was too harsh for the crime x

_________________

It cost €750,000 to upgrade the oncology department in Beaumont hospital.

Your really really nice friend deliberately, defrauded the state of well over a million
He set out to conspire with suppliers to defraude money from the state, that's you, me, all of us.

How many sna's would 1.6 million pay for?
How many people would get their DCA ?
How many operations for sick kids would that pay for?

I don't get the attitude that he shouldn't serve time for this & that a fine is adequate punishment, just because he is nice & his family are good people.

He will appeal, he will most likely get a vastly reduced sentence.
But he's still a criminal.

_________________
"I guess that's just the circle of life: our parents faked their way through it,you fake your way through it and hopefully you don't raise a serial killer"

How will it benefit to have this man in jail?
Would a very large fine and considerable amount of community service not make more sense?

Jailing him to warn others is not a good enough reason.

Agree with you, his company employs a lot of people, in fact Im fairly sure he has more than one business, I really hope that no jobs are under threat now

Helen I do get where you are coming from too he did steal but was in the process of paying it all back which is more than can be said for all the millions that the bankers stole from us

_________________
You cant scare me, I have children

Whole thing is bizarre from the level of tax on garlic to the lenght of the sentence.

Yes he should pay for his crime, as that it what it is, but it should be in line with the scale of the crime.

Repayment of taxes due and 3 month custodial sentence would satisfy me!

The Irish attitude of "It's only a little bit illegal, and he's a terrible decent man" is what got our country into the mess it's in today. The law may be an ass, but it is the law. He was found guilty and the judge imoosed the sentence that was open to him. That it seems excessive relative to other crimes is irrelevent.

I don't know the man from Adam and what he did was illegal.
I still don't think a six year jail sentence achieves anything. make him pay for his crime with something that helps. It costs a huge amount to the taxpayer to keep someone in jail and they are effectively a drain on the exchequer. (edited to add, estimated cost of prison at close to 80 grand per year per inmate)

I have yet to hear character references that suggested that any of the main players in Ireland's financial demise were 'terribly decent men'.

Indignation at inequity of sentencing is not irrelevant though and this is, I think, mostly what this thread has been about.

_________________
https://www.facebook.com/PomegranateIE

http://www.pomegranate.ie

Pomegranate are participating in this years Flora Women's Mini Marathon. Join us or Click here to sponsor us Please

National Infertility Awareness Day - Friday May 3rd, Help us mark it - host a coffee morning!

Cant understand this, The sentence is way to excessive what will be gained by sending this man to prison for this length of time. I also know the family and do feel sorry for them it must be a dreadful time for them .I agree what he did was wrong and should have got a prison sentence but 6 years

One could just as easily ask what would be gained by jailing David Drumm or Seanie Fitz. The justice system is there to punish the wrong-doer, not provide the rest of the population with retribution as they see fit.

I'm bloody sure that Seanie and gang's families and their friends would tell you that they are terribly nice people and decent. They probably are if you met them. I once had a lovely au pair - well brought up, lovely manners, very pleasant, great sense of humour, seemingly well-balanced. She stole at least 500 euro from us. Nice and 'on the surface' decent people are not always honest. What he did was extremely dishonest - I totally understand why the judge feels the need to impose a harsh punishment. A light one would only encourage more of this sort of thing. However, that doesn't mean I can't feel extremely sorry for the man and his family. I also feel extremely sorry for victims of more serious crimes who have seen the perpetrators get away with a punishment that is a fraction of his.
The other thing that makes me mad though is that the tax on garlic seems ridiculously high and it's anti-business to have a tax like that.

Did anyone ever get 6 years for laundering Agri diesel or importing cigarettes without declaring 1.6m worth of duty?

Over the years many people have made settlements to the Revenue, lists of them are publicised regularly. I personally know a man who had to pay a few million and he paid it, his name was published but I don't think there was ever a question of him being sent to jail.

_________________
DD 2001
DS 2007
#3 ETA Autumn 2013

Do not regret growing older, it is a privilege denied to many

Life is an ocean, love is a boat, in troubled water, it keeps us afloat

I think the sentence is excessive for the crime, considering that more serious crimes involving serious injury and death often get shorter sentences. He'll probably successfully appeal it.

I bought garlic in Centra the other day and saw it was from China.
Why do we have to import it?? Is it hard to grow or something? And what's with the crazy tax?

_________________
Mum to 4

AFAIK, customs duties are set at an EU level, to protect EU trade. Why the distinction between onions and garlic is made when both can be produced within the EU, I don't know.

Don't see the reason for the custodial sentence when the money was being repaid.

Sounds to me like a case of the judge being on a power trip.

_________________

Garlic is very easy to grow here.

I think the length of the sentence is excessive in comparison to sentences handed out for most other crimes.

I think its ridiculous that he got 6 years when u see the likes of Wayne O'Donoghue getting 4 yrs for murdering a child and hiding his body, thats just the one case that popped into my head when I read it, I'm not doubting that he's done wrong and he should be punished but ffs get some sort of flipping balance, the whole system is a joke.

_________________
MOTHERHEN

I saw a legal expert explaining on the TV (6.1 news possibly?) yesterday words to the effect that one of the higher courts in the country gave directions, a few weeks back, that they were no longer going to disregard white collar crime such as this re custodial sentences in the future.

I would wonder if the judge in this case was taking his lead from these directions. He seems to have, considering his comments re making an example of him to others engaged in similar behaviour.

Either way though Mr Begley will most likely appeal, get the sentence reduced (probably halved), and be out in 18 months.

Wayne O'Donoghue was not convicted of murder. He was convicted of manslaughter. I'm not jumping to his defence - just stating a fact.

I think that quite often MONEY is seen as more important than PEOPLE in this country (and many others).

In this instance the convicted man & his company were found guilty of defrauding Revenue of Money. Now this fraud isn't without impact or damage to the general public, but it certainly cannot be compared to heinous acts of violence, rape, torture, murder. Yet the state has decided, on this occasion, that it was a more serious crime.

Likewise, people found guilty of relatively small acts of fraud, non payment, debt can be convicted & treated so very badly (while the Big Boys get a slap on the back for being the cute hoor), but the delinquint, violent, & downright cold-blooded heartless criminals get away with hardly any punishment.

_________________


SIGN MY PETITION FOR BETTER BOYS CLOTHES BELOW....Please!!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/153/peti ... et-outlets

He broke the law and deserves a punishment.

But six years of a jail term? Seriously? When he was already repaying/in agreement with Revenue?

And what is with that tax on garlic?! I bought three bulbs in Aldi for 60c recently.

This country is such a joke.

IM x

Duty rates are set centrally by the EU.
The tax (duty) is there to protect European countries' business - they grow a lot of garlic in Spain, but if they can only produce and sell it for (let's say) 10c per bulb, yet China can produce it for 3c a bulb, then importers would just buy the Chinese garlic & never buy the Spanish garlic. They cannot prevent the Chinese from selling it at 3c, and they cannot prevent you from buying it at 3c, but they can discourage you from buying it by putting huge rates of Duty on it to try to support & protect local (European) business.
On the one hand it may seem unfair that this isn't completely "free trade" but if it wasn't for measures like this Ireland would probably have little or no export market.

I know from my own experience that while the application of duty classifications is done in a highly detailed & specific manner, sometimes they are open to interpretation, and one European country may accept a particular interpretation and another country may not, leading to unfair advantages for one EU country over another. For all we know, perhaps the Chinese garlic is being improperly imported by everyone all over Europe, and this particular importer may be the only one to be caught/prosecuted. I've no idea if that is the case, I'm just saying that it is possible.

_________________


SIGN MY PETITION FOR BETTER BOYS CLOTHES BELOW....Please!!
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/153/peti ... et-outlets

Yeah ur right, sorry, even still though I dont think he got a sentence that matched his crime as I dont in this case.

_________________
MOTHERHEN