A company owned by Independent TD Michael Lowry is seeking to have charges of filing false tax returns heard in a court in Tipperary rather than in Dublin.
Judge John O'Neill of the Dublin District Court was told yesterday that the registered office of Garuda Ltd, a refrigeration company, was changed from Foxrock, Dublin, to Thurles, Co Tipperary, between the issuing of a summons by the court and the serving of the summons at the Dublin address.
Justin McQuade, for Garuda, said the court had no jurisdiction to make orders in relation to the case, including whether a summons had been properly served, as the registered office of the company was now in Co Tipperary.
He said the “simple remedy is to go off to Tipperary” and ask the relevant District Court clerk there to issue the summons, but that the Revenue Commissioners was not choosing to do this.
Gráinne O’Neill, for the Revenue, said that in the circumstances the court had jurisdiction and should deem the service of the summons as having been good.
She said Garuda Ltd, which trades as Streamline Enterprises, had its registered offices at the premises of Ecovis BBT, the Gables, Torquay Road, Dublin, since 1997.
On December 10th, 2013 the summons was issued by the Dublin District Court. A form seeking to change the Garuda address and dated December 31st, 2013, was received by the Companies Registration Office (CRO) on January 10th, 2014, and the new address was published on the CRO website on January 13th, 2014.
A Garda served the summons at the Ecovis BBT offices on January 16th and it was accepted by David Spicer of Ecovis BBT. On January 17th, solicitor Michael Collins, of Thurles, Co Tipperary, wrote to the Revenue on behalf of Garuda, in response to the serving of the summons, saying it had been returned to the Garda and that the company's registered office was now in Thurles.
Jurisdiction
Ms O'Neill said the logical point in time for setting jurisdiction was the date on which the summons was issued. Otherwise, companies could keep changing their address "and no court would ever be vested of jurisdiction".
This could lead to repeated applications for a new summons having to be made.
Judge O’Neill said he was not going to rush into judgment and adjourned his decision to May 12th next. He said it would be helpful if both sides made submissions on a number of matters, including the proposition that the prosecution should have checked the company’s address prior to the serving of the summons on January 16th.
Garuda is facing charges concerning the company’s corporation tax for 2002 and 2006.
