A JUDGE yesterday told a professional photographer to teach his skills to the less well-off after he had been convicted of tax offences. The court had heard he failed to pay VAT on €1.4 million worth of sales.
Niall Williamson, of the Old Schoolhouse, Dunkit, Co Kilkenny, owed Revenue €332,000 in VAT and penalties. A jury found him guilty last April of 85 charges relating to tax offences between 1998 and 2004.
The charges related to when Williamson worked as a self-employed photographer at the old Waterford Crystal visitor centre, taking pictures of tourists.
Yesterday Judge Olive Buttimer told Kilkenny Circuit Court she could see no point in sending the father of two to jail. A Revenue official told the court Williamson was “deliberate” in not paying his taxes.
The judge did not send Williamson to jail but asked if the Probation Service would find him somewhere to teach photography on a voluntary basis.
“I see no point whatsoever in sending you to prison,” she said to the defendant. Revenue inspector Patrick Faughnan told the trial visitors at the centre “wanted their picture taken standing at Waterford Crystal with a piece of glass” and they paid Williamson for that service.
Williamson then paid the crystal company a commission for using its premises.
During an interview with Revenue officials, Williamson is alleged to have said he was under “severe pressure from the bank”, the trial heard in April.
He never provided figures for sales he made at the former Waterford Crystal site and the Revenue had to obtain them from Waterford Crystal.
