Garlic tax man Begley is freed from Mountjoy months early

GARLIC importer Paul Begley has been allowed to leave Mountjoy Prison just one month after his six-year sentence was reduced on appeal.

The Dublin businessman, who was jailed over a €1.6million garlic import duty scam, had been expected to serve another six months before his release.

But yesterday the Irish Prison Service revealed that the 47-year-old had been granted temporary release from the prison’s training unit.

Begley’s original prison sentence caused outrage after he was jailed for six years in March last year after admitting to labelling more than 1,000 tonnes of imported garlic as apples, which are taxed at a lower rate.

Last month, the Court of Criminal Appeal cut his sentence to two years, stating that the judge had erred in not taking mitigating factors into account when imposing the hefty sentence.

Begley will now participate in a community return programme, in which offenders are offered early temporary release in return for carrying out community service.

It has not been revealed what community work Begley will be

‘Agreed to do community service’

undertaking. If the statutory remission of 25 per cent of his sentence is applied, Begley will walk free from prison for good in September.

Mr Justice Liam McKechnie had said last month that the charges against Begley, of Begley Brothers Ltd, Blanchardstown, Dublin, had been serious and constituted ‘a significant infringement of the criminal law’.

He said the offences were carefully planned, took place at different times over a prolonged period from 2003 to 2007 and added that they involved ‘premeditated acts of deception’.

The original prison term imposed on the father-of-three from Rathcoole, Co. Dublin, had been publicly compared to the fate of other alleged tax defaulters and violent criminals.

The father of a young woman who was sexually assaulted by aviation company boss Anthony Lyons cited Begley’s case last year when Lyons was given just six months in prison.

It was also referred to following Wexford TD Mick Wallace’s €2.1million settlement with Revenue for underpayment of VAT.