Mrs Brown’s Boys’ Brendan O’Carroll hits back at suggestions family tried to dodge tax and blasts BBC for ‘ambushing’ daughter Fiona Delany over Paradise Papers revelations
Brendan's daughter Fiona Delany, her hubby Martin and their fellow Mrs Brown’s Boys star Paddy Houlihan put £2million into a tax avoidance scheme
COMEDY legend Brendan O’Carroll has hit back at suggestions his family tried to dodge tax.
His daughter Fiona Delany, her hubby Martin and their fellow star Paddy Houlihan put £2,034,465 into a tax avoidance scheme.
Last night Brendan blasted the BBC for “ambushing” his girl over the Paradise Papers revelations, leaving her in tears.
He raged: “They scared the life out of her. It seems to be an effort to tarnish the show. We’ve done nothing wrong.”
Brendan — who has donated millions to charity over the years — insists neither he nor the three members of the cast have done anything wrong.
He told the Irish Sun: “Fiona was in tears. I spent the whole day comforting her."
And Brendan says he is confused about why his daughter figured so heavily in the special on tax avoidance.
He raged: “She is not an oligarch laundering money through Greek banks, nor does she deal in the arm trade, deal drugs or traffic people.
“She has never committed a crime in her life, she doesn’t have a private yacht or own a collection of luxury cars. She drives a Kia people carrier which is necessary if you have four toddlers.”
Panorama’s report said that Patrick, Fiona and Martin had their fees from the show moved into Mauritius firms. The cash was then sent back as loans which are not subject to income tax.
The controversial scheme used by the trio was masterminded by accountant Roy Lyness.
He helped comic Jimmy Carr pay just one per cent tax via a similar method — but the star later had to pay a £500,000 bill when it was exposed.
The Queen and Bono and have also been embroiled in the latest avoidance controversy. Using offshore vehicles to avoid tax is not illegal.
And Brendan insisted: “No-one involved with Mrs Brown’s Boys has done anything illegal. Everybody that featured in that show did what they did for completely different reasons.
“Paddy and Fiona wanted to regularise their income over a period of time so they could pay tax over a longer period of time.
“What’s really important is that nothing they did was illegal. In the case of Fiona, Paddy, and Marty, not one penny of their BBC money went into that fund.
“Panorama said that they are paid offshore. That’s b*****ks. Their fees are paid to a UK agency called ProFid who represent them.
“They invoice us and we pay their fees to Profid who organise whatever they organise with them to give them their monthly salary. In my daughter Fiona’s case I know she paid £200,000 in tax last year. At the time, Fiona was ambushed by the BBC guy in Glasgow she had just done a year-long audit and had a clearance certificate. All her loans were declared.”
And Brendan thinks it’s wrong that the BBC didn’t mention its own link to Mrs Brown’s Boys — with the show described as being made by a production company owned by him.
Asked if he planned to take any legal action, he said: “I’m not litigious. I don’t believe in fruitless litigation.
“We have a big family and a big crew everybody is healthy and well. We will go back to work and be fine. No-one died.”
Today, a BBC News spokesperson said: “This is investigation shows there is clear a public interest in the information being reported.
“It has been conducted in a fair and impartial way by our award-winning current affairs programme Panorama and BBC News journalists.
“A thorough and fair right of reply procedure was followed. We’re satisfied that we’ve acted fairly and followed our editorial guidelines.”
MOST READ IN SHOWBIZ
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.