GAA Coach Jailed For Over VAT Fraud

A County Fermanagh GAA Manager has been jailed for 16 months after fraudulently trying to claim over £1.3m.

Gerald Moane, 46, from Fivemiletown, was found guilty of fraudulently reclaiming £1.3m in VAT repayments.

Moane created false invoices for machinery and farm work, however he was caught following an investigation by the HMRC.

Mike Parkinson, assistant director of HMRC's criminal investigation, said: "Moane deliberately set out to create a false paper trail so that he could claim money that he was not entitled to.

"He manipulated a system that exists for the benefit of legitimate companies with the sole purpose of lining his own pockets.

"He knew he was breaking the law, yet chose to overlook it for the opportunity of making what he wrongly assumed would be easy money, at the expense of the taxpayer."

(CD/JP)