Organised crime boss Francis Devlin cannot be spared jail due to impact on son, court rules

The head of an organised crime gang behind one of Northern Ireland’s biggest ever tax frauds cannot be spared imprisonment due to the impact on his teenage son, the Court of Appeal ruled today.

Senior judges rejected claims that 58-year-old Francis Devlin’s four-year sentence for spearheading the multi-million pound scam should have been suspended because of the exceptional family circumstances.

Lady Chief Justice Dame Siobhan Keegan held: “The public interest requiring condign punishment and deterrence decisively outweighs the competing private interests.”

Devlin, of Bristow Park in Belfast, was among 27 people convicted following a decade-long HMRC investigation into the construction industry fraud.

The gang provided labour, taking cash in hand payments and creating a false audit trail to avoid tax and VAT.

Sham companies and a bogus bank account were set up, false invoices created and sophisticated working arrangements put in place to avoid detection.

Although the confirmed loss to the public purse was £5m, the court heard that the scale of the fraud may well have been much higher.

Devlin, who was a partner in the accountancy firm used as a base, recruited others to take part in the criminal operation.

In June he received a four-year sentence, half to be served in custody and half on licence, after pleading guilty to conspiring to cheat the public revenue and conspiracy to convert criminal property.

Defence lawyers accepted the term was appropriate given the scale of the fraud.

However, they argued that it should have suspended the term due to the extreme effect on Devlin’s son.

The teenager has a diagnosed disability which has worsened since his father was imprisoned, it was contended.

In her ruling, Dame Siobhan highlighted the competing public and private interests in the case.

“The tragedy of this case is that the son is clearly impacted due to the misdeeds of his father,” she acknowledged.

But the Chief Justice also stressed the gravity of the offences committed by Devlin, describing him as an intelligent man with a successful business and an annual income in excess of £100,000.

"Despite having all these advantages in life, he found it necessary to set up and run with his co-accused an organised crime group, recruiting people into that organisation and cheating the HMRC out of sums in the region of £5million over a sustained period,” she pointed out.

“Whilst there are factors in this case which point to difficult circumstances for the family, with whom the court is sympathetic, we do not consider that the circumstances were so exceptional to merit a suspension of the sentence."

Dismissing the appeal, Dame Siobhan stressed that Devlin’s son will still have the support of the rest of his family.

She added: “We are sorry that he has suffered but that is entirely down to his father’s actions.

"He will know that if people, like his father, offend, there are consequences, and they will have to be properly punished.”

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