A sales consultant who made incorrect tax returns after setting up an "elaborate" offshore bank account and invoicing scheme to hide income he received was fined €10,800 in Dublin District Court yesterday.

His suitability to do 100 hours community service will also be assessed.

Brendan Burke (38), Cherryfield Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin, pleaded guilty to eight charges relating to more than €29,000 of unpaid tax.

It comprised incorrect income declarations between 1999 and 2001, incorrect VAT returns for a four-month period in 2002, an incorrect statement of assets in 2001 and a tax rebate he had subsequently received but was not entitled to.

Dublin District Court heard the Revenue Commissioners were tipped off by an anonymous letter giving details of a bank account in Jersey in his name.

Mr Patrick Faughnan, an inspector of taxes in the investigations section, said that when Burke was first interviewed, he denied he had a foreign bank account and claimed his last tax return for 2001 was correct.

He claimed he had been unemployed since then and had been travelling in New Zealand and Asia, "picking apples" for some of the time.

After he was cautioned, he admitted he had been working as a sales consultant for a Danish compact disk manufacturing company.

He acted as its agent so that it could maintain a sales presence in Ireland.

This was the parent of a company he had worked for as a PAYE employee until 2001 when he was made redundant.

He subsequently worked out an arrangement with the parent company whereby he would be a consultant and it would pay him electronically into the Jersey bank account.

In order to disguise what he was doing, he made up false invoices for the main Irish buyer of the product.

Subsequent inquiries with the Irish firm showed the names, addresses and phone numbers on its copy invoices were different from those he had in his own files.

The court heard the bulk of the unpaid tax related to income of €20,504 received for 2001 and undeclared benefit-in-kind for a car he had kept after he was made redundant from his old company.

Another €3,242 related to VAT returns.

He also received a tax rebate of €1,819 having said he was unemployed for the period involved.

The remainder was made up of interest and penalties.

His lawyer said Burke was "totally taken by surprise" by the loss of his job and he had set up this arrangement with the parent company of his former employer.

He had paid back all the money owed and his tax affairs were now up to date.

Judge Miriam Malone said she had considered a prison sentence when she heard about what was "a quite elaborate plan" to hide his activities through false invoices and the off-shore account.

"It appears to be a one-off situation and I do not think that going to prison is going to act as a deterrent to doing this again."

She took into account his guilty plea, his previous good record and testimonials.

She ordered that he carry out 100 hours community service if found suitable.

He was remanded to appear in court again on April 8th for a report on his suitability for community service.