Dublin's famous Dr Quirkey's arcade has fallen foul of the taxman

AN ARCADE COMPANY owned by one of the richest men in the country has been slugged with a significant tax bill.

Dublin Pool and Juke Box Ltd was hit with a bill of just over €40,000 for the under-declaration of PAYE/PRSI, according to the latest Revenue list of tax defaulters covering the final three months of 2016.

The company is the firm behind the well-known gaming arcade Dr Quirkey’s Good Time Emporium in Dublin. Dublin Pool and Juke Box is owned by businessman Richard Quirke and is used for his arcade interests.

Quirke owns some property as well as the arcade in Dublin. A former garda, the Sunday Independent last year listed the Cabinteely man as having a net worth of €45 million.

He also spearheaded a proposal to build a huge ‘Las Vegas style’ casino near the small Tipperary town of Two-Mile Borris, which has run into numerous delays.

A concept still of the proposed Tipperary casino

After a Revenue audit, Dublin Pool and Juke Box was ordered to pay €20,123 in tax, €10,089 in interest and €12,061 in penalties.

Heather Perrin

David O’Connor, a landlord and company director with an address at North Main Street in Cork, was hit with one the largest bills during the period.

He was ordered to pay almost €1 million in taxes, interest and penalties due to a under-declaration of income tax and VAT.

O’Connor is a director of menswear company Suits Distributors, which is in liquidation.

Disgraced former district court judge Heather Perrin, who in 2012 was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for deception, is also on the list.

Perrin, who has an address at Lambay Court in Malahide, was the first member of Ireland’s judiciary to be convicted of a crime and sent to jail.

Revenue ordered her to pay a penalty of €223,452 relating to a under-declaration of income tax.

Some other notable inclusions on the defaulters list:

• Barry James Canny, who owns Peploe’s Wine Bistro on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin, made a €38,904.51 settlement for under-declaration of income tax
• Annette and Malcolm Akerlind and Patrick and Audrey Murray, creche operators who had a listed address of Tots Creche & Day Care nursery in Newbridge, made a €442,759 settlement relating to the under-declaration of VAT
• Richard Larkin, a landlord with an address at Main Street, Clarenbridge, Galway, made an €832,637 settlement relating to the underdeclaration of income tax and VAT and the non-declaration of capital gains tax.

Overall, settlements worth €11 million and relating to 76 taxpayers were published during the quarter.

Revenue said that the published settlements reflect “only a portion” of all the organisation’s audits and investigations.

It said that in the three-month period to the end of December 2016, a total of 1,453 audit and investigations, together with over 22,000 ‘risk management interventions’, were settled, resulting in a yield of €151.9 million in tax, interest and penalties.

However, not all those who are published on the defaulter’s list promptly settle their bills. Figures published in November 2016 showed that of the €41.1 million in settlements that had been published, only €20.3 million had been paid in full.