This article is from page 5 of the 2006-10-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 5 JPG
A COUNTY Clare businessman has made a €26.5 million settlement with the Criminal Assets Bureau – the biggest in the history of the State.
Businessesman Dylan Creaven (32), a native of Newmarket-on-Fergus with an address in Kensington in London, is understood to have handed over €26.5 million (£18 million sterling) to CAB and the ARA (Assets Recovery Agency) in the UK.
He has also handed over a villa in Marbella, Spain and four racehorses including Latino Magic, which won the McDonagh Handicap at the Galway Races last year.
Creaven, the former director of Silicon Technologies, was acquitted in June of last year of an alleged £20 million VAT fraud in the UK.
He had been accused of teaming up with an array of off-the-shelf British companies to defraud the tax man.
The Prosecutors at London’s Crown Court had claimed that Creaven supplied companies with VAT-free computer chips that were then resold with the tax added. It was alleged that instead of passing a percentage to Customs and Excise, the money went to Creaven.
However the Clareman denied two counts of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue between December 2000 and October 2001 and was acquitted following a month-long trial.
The ARA and CAB continued to investigate Creaven and this resulted in the settlement being reached.
Creaven had traded as Silicon Technologies Europe Ltd, which had an office at Ennis Business Centre, Francis Street, Ennis, and turned over €417 million in 2000 to 2001.