The cheque was one of several anonymous payments received by Revenue over the past three years, totalling €62,562.

The bank draft for €32,557 was sent to the Collector General’s office in Limerick in 2016, The Times reports.

It beats the previous record for an unsolicited sum of €25,000, handed in to a Revenue office in Galway in 2007.

Conscience payments are widely speculated to be attempts at restitution from tax evaders who do not want to risk prosecution by identifying themselves.