A garlic scam that led to an Irish importer being jailed for six years for dodging import duty was “not surprising” given the tax rates, an industry source has said.
Paul Begley arranged for more than 1,000 tonnes of garlic from China to be labelled as apples so his company Begley’s could benefit from a lower rate of import duty.
Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard the import duty on garlic was “inexplicably high”, sometimes reaching 232 per cent. But Judge Martin Nolan said that although the tax “may or may not” be exces- sive, that was for the Irish govern- ment to decide and not individuals.
It gave him “no joy at all to jail a decent man”, he said, and described Begley as an “asset to the country” who helped the econ- omy and donated to the homeless.
Following the verdict, a garlic importer and grower told FPJ that if Begley was family the verdict would be sad but as a business- man he welcomed the outcome. “As a grower of garlic in the UK, I’m delighted that he’s got six years. My livelihood would be threatened by people importing garlic and saying something that it’s not,” he said.
He added that removing the tariff on garlic would do more harm than good because it would leave the market open to be flooded by garlic from China.
However, another source told FPJ that, due to the customs duty, the scam was no surprise.
“Although it’s not responsible, it’s not surprising,” he said. “It’s got to get back to some sort of reality in terms of pricing.”
The scam was exposed in 2007 when officials at Dublin Port opened containers. Email evidence of the deal was then found on Begley’s computer.
The family said the verdict was “devastating”.
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