A newspaper delivery man who defrauded the State out of almost a quarter of a million euro will be released almost a year early.
Dean O’Reilly of Castlemoyne, Balgriffin successfully appealed an 18 month sentence handed down in June.
O’Reilly found himself on Revenue’s radar during a review of a newspaper distribution company called Newspread.
He hadn’t filed any VAT returns since 1995 and the investigation also revealed he hadn’t made income tax returns since 1994.
In the end, he owed just under €250,000 in unpaid VAT, income tax, penalties and interest.
At his sentence hearing, the judge apologised for jailing Dean O’Reilly, a man he described as a “hard working, family man” but said he had to mark the seriousness of his crime with an 18 month sentence.
But following a successful appeal, this was judged to be disproportionate and an 8 month sentence was instead handed down.
