This article is from page 16 of the 2006-10-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
AFTER making the single biggest tax settlement in the history of the State, Clareman Dylan Creaven will this week be allowed to return to his €800,000 home in Ennis.
The Newmarket-on-Fergus businessman has managed to hold onto his Woodstock mansion, despite having to pay more than €26 million to the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) in Ireland and the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) in Britain.
In addition to the cash settlement, Creaven (32), was also forced to sign over a villa in Marbella and four race horses, including last year’s Galway Hurdle winner Latino Magic. Indeed Latino Magic’s victory in the €79,000 McDonagh Handicap came while the horse was being leased from Garda control by trainer Robbie Osbourne.
An agreement was reached in the High Court to split all winnings received from the horses between trainer Osbourne and the Criminal Assets Bureau.
The other horses seized by the Garda were Moon at Midnight, Lafayette and La Mandrigola.
Along with the Ennis property, Creaven had also managed to hold on to property in the Knightsbridge District of London, worth in excess of €2 million and several million Euro in cash.
The former owner of Silicon Technologies in Shannon was acquitted of a £14 million VAT fraud by a London court last year. He has been the subject of a number of investigations on both sides of the Irish Sea in the last four years and spent more than a year Wandsworth Prison awaiting trial.
Creaven was initially accused of defrauding the British taxpayer to the tune of £162 million but was eventually charged and acquitted on charges relating to just £14 million.
He was accused of operating a ‘carousel’ scheme, by repeatedly charging VAT to high value customers but not declaring this to British revenue. This investigation was part of a much longer but failed £2 billion revenue investigation in Britain involving hundreds of business people.
It is believed that Creaven’s legal cost could run to as much as €6 million in total.
Both the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Assets Recovery Agency had sought a full prosecution of Creaven on a number of occasions but the record breaking deal was struck after successive attempts failed to bring a verdict.