TWO brothers who own a chain of coffee shops and manage all the O’Brien’s sandwich outlets in Northern Ireland are at the centre of an investigation into an alleged £1 million tax fraud.
More than 120 officers from HM Revenue & Customs conducted searches on two private and 16 business addresses on Wednesday and seized computers and business records.
Two men, aged 49 and 47, and a woman (39), all from the Newry area, were arrested and later bailed as part of an ongoing investigation.
Damien Garvey (49) and his brother Adrian (47), from Newry, head up the BWL Group, which operates a number of Synge & Byrne coffee shops around greater Belfast, Derry, Dungannon and Newry.
After the raids, the brothers' solicitor issued a statement saying: “Our client is cooperating fully with the relevant authorities and is hopeful they will return to normal business in the coming days.
“This investigation relates to accounting technicalities particular to café/outlet industry, and our client is confident the findings will ultimately vindicate them.”
Yesterday most of the shops in the group were back trading normally.
