DUBLIN: Ireland is a target for international crime gangs despite the best efforts of the Revenue Commissioners, a retailers’ group has claimed.
Retailers Against Smuggling, which represents 3,000 independent shops, said that Revenue’s most recent defaulters’ list, published on Tuesday, highlighted this.
RAS spokesman Benny Gilsenan said the list for the period January to March 2015, showed every single person convicted of cigarette smuggling was a foreign national and nearly half gave addresses outside of the State.
“This clearly shows that international crime gangs have their sights set on Ireland and see it as an easy target for smuggling,” said Mr Gilsenan, who owns a shop in Dublin’s north inner city. “The fact that many of the people convicted gave addresses outside of Ireland shows that they are coming here specifically to smuggle goods.”
The defaulters’ list reveals seven people were convicted of smuggling cigarettes in the first three months of this year. They are all apparently foreign nationals and three gave foreign addresses — two in Moldova and one in Lithuania. Five of the seven appear to come from Eastern Europe and two from Asia.
All seven received fines of between €2,500 and €3,000 each. None of them were given a custodial sentence.
Mr Gilsenan said these fines were not a sufficient deterrent. “We’re talking about criminal operations that make tens of millions every year from smuggling and criminal activity. Handing down fines of a few thousand euro won’t make a blind bit of difference to them. It just sends out the signal that Ireland is a great place to do business if you are a smuggler.”
RAS also expressed concern there were a number of shop owners convicted for illegal selling. Mr Gilsenan said these “rogue operators” had nothing to do with RAS or its members, which are all legitimate businesses.
The list shows three shop owners, in Limerick, Wexford and Dublin, were fined €2,500 each for selling illegal cigarettes. Five other people, including two from Cork, were also fined €2,500, while one individual, from Dublin, was given an 18-month custodial sentence.
Revenue figures show 53.4m cigarettes were seized in 2014, worth €25.5m, along with 4,824kg of loose tobacco, worth €4.2m. Some 53 people were convicted in the district court for smuggling last year, and 49 for selling.
“We are calling on the public and our own retail members to be extra vigilant and to make sure that if they have any concern that black market activity is taking place to contact Revenue,” said Mr Gilsenan.
