By Mairead Carey

Former Fianna Fail minister Ray Burke could go down in history as the first Irish politician jailed for tax evasion. 

The former minister for foreign affairs faces a five-year jail sentence and a fine of up to Œ127,000 for making false returns to the Revenue Commissioners. 

Burke was a leading light in Fianna Fail in the 1980s and ‘90s. He served as both foreign minister and the minister for justice, and at various stages in his career also held the environment, energy, communications, commerce and industry portfolios. 

On Tuesday he appeared in the Circuit Court in Dublin a broken man. But he will not know his fate until the New Year. His lawyers managed to get his sentencing adjourned until after Christmas. Judge Desmond Hogan remanded Burke on continuing bail for sentence until January 24.

Burke could become Ireland’s Lester Pigott. The famous jockey was the first household name to be convicted of tax evasion in Britain. 

No well-known figure has been jailed in Ireland. Last July Burke admitted to two counts relating to the lodgment of false tax returns.

His confession came after a lengthy investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). The bureau was set up to investigate Ireland’s most notorious criminal gangs in the wake of the murder of investigative journalist Veronica Guerin in 1998. 

The CAB has been investigating Burke since September 2002, shortly after the interim report of the Flood Tribunal into planning corruption found he received total corrupt payments of almost Œ250,000 from developers. 

The CAB discovered further wrongdoing. It identified between Œ300,000 and Œ400,000 in income from 1973 to the early 1990s on which it believes the former leading light in Fianna Fail did not pay income tax. It also found that the purchase of his former home in Swords was also corrupt.

His bill to the state is now in excess of Œ2 million, which includes penalties and interest.

Last summer it was revealed that Burke had made a Œ600,000 settlement with the CAB for unpaid taxes. As a result of the settlement he was forced to sell his home, and move to a more modest house in Griffith Downs in Drumcondra. 

Burke, 60, admitted to knowingly or willfully furnishing incorrect information during the government’s tax amnesty of 1993 by failing to declare income of £151,980.

He also pleaded guilty to knowingly or willfully furnishing incorrect information to the inspector of taxes on or after December 15, 2003, by failing to declare income of £24,038.

Another charge under the 1993 tax amnesty legislation that carried more serious financial penalties and a jail term of up to eight years was dropped.

Burke’s fall from grace has been spectacular. He has already been condemned by the Flood Tribunal for accepting corrupt payments from property developers, although the inquiry isn’t finished with him yet. 

Investigators are still digging into a controversial payment he received from a company owned by business tycoon Tony O’Reilly while Burke was minister for communications. 

Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern has disowned his former colleague. He has said he felt saddened and betrayed by the planning corruption in which Burke was involved. 

Ahern claims that Burke had assured him on a number of occasions that there were no difficulties in his past. He said he would not have appointed Burke to his cabinet if he had known then what he knows now.