An Irish garage owner who organised a series of insurance frauds involving fake car accidents, has been ordered to pay €1.2m (£795,000) in tax on his earnings from the scams.
The tax bill was served on 39-year-old Michael Byrne, of County Longford, by the Irish Criminal Assets Bureau, which targets those benefiting from crime proceeds.
Byrne - currently serving a three-year sentence - was brought from prison last week to the Circuit Criminal Court in Dublin. The court sanctioned the tax demand and ordered him to pay it, or have his property and bank accounts seized.
At his trial last year, Byrne had been convicted of conspiring with others to defraud PMPA (now AXA Insurance), which paid out €223,470 (£148,120) in damage claims on an accident he helped to stage.
He also pleaded guilty to additional charges of defrauding PMPA and Allianz Cornhill through other bogus accidents.
Byrne had been leading a secret life, the Gardai said, masterminding some of the most complex scams they had ever seen.
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