Father Fined

An Irish priest has written a cheque for almost €200,000 to pay his bill for dodging taxes.

Fr O’Donovan, a curate in the Cork parish of Whitechurch, pleaded guilty to 10 charges of tax fraud amounting to a total of €213,000.

The Priest, who is paid the nominal salary of just over €30,000 per year, settled his tax evasion debts with a cheque for €192,404 last week.

It emerged the disgraced priest withheld account details and rental income from some of the 13 properties owned and part owned by the priest dating back to 1989.

Much of the rental income pocketed by the priest came from Ireland’s struggling Health Service in the form of Rental Supplement payments.

The Rental Supplement Scheme is aimed at helping poorer families on lower incomes to secure rental properties they would otherwise be unable to afford.

Fr O'Donovan also failed to disclose a bank account he used to lodge rental income payments after being informed in 2004 he was under investigation.

The offences included five charges of failing to make proper tax returns, three charges of providing incorrect information to the Revenue Commissioners, one charge of making an incorrect tax statement and one charge of failing to keep proper accounts.

A spokesman from the curates diocese said: "Each priest is responsible for their own tax affairs and it is up to each individual priest to make the appropriate returns."