Accountant `astonished' by Dunne's invoice

Mr Ben Dunne said he had a business to run when an accountant expressed concern about expenditure on Mr Dunne's home being recorded as work on a new Dunnes Stores factory, Naas District Court heard yesterday.

Mr Michael Irwin, an accountant on secondment to Dunnes Stores from Oliver Freaney & Co, said he was called to Mr Dunne's office in mid 1992 and shown an invoice and an architect's certificate referring to work on a plant for Newbridge Foods, a Dunnes family company.

Mr Dunne said the invoice was, in fact, for work carried out on his home in Castleknock, Co Dublin, but that he had authorised the misdescribing of the work.

Mr Irwin said when he expressed misgivings Mr Dunne said: "You've got your f...ing ethics and I've got a business to run. I want it done that way."

The meeting had lasted about "one minute and 30 seconds", Mr Irwin said. He had been astonished by what Mr Dunne had said but "Ben Dunne being Ben Dunne you certainly didn't argue with him". Mr Irwin said that Mr Dunne was "a difficult man to deal with". What was being suggested was "clearly wrong".

Mr Irwin said he subsequently arranged for the payment to be processed. A number of subsequent invoices which crossed his desk and which again misdescribed work on Mr Dunne's home as work for Newbridge Foods were similarly processed.

Mr Irwin was giving evidence at the resumed hearing of a case where construction company Faxhill Homes Ltd and its directors, Mr Jack Tierney and his wife Ms Jennifer Tierney, are facing 26 charges under company law. Guilty pleas have been entered in relation to a further three charges.

A chartered accountant who, from 1984, was on secondment from Oliver Freaney & Co to Dunnes Stores, Mr Irwin said he was a consultant to the group up to October 1993. He reported primarily to Mr Noel Fox, a partner in Oliver Freaney and a member of the Dunnes Stores trust, and to Mr Dunne. He said Mr Dunne ran the Dunne group at the time and the rest of the family "more often than not" did not participate.

Mr Irwin said he was brought in to implement new management systems in the group and was the chair of an IT development group. During the period 1987 to 1989 he led the development of a new corporate structure in the group.

In 1990 he was asked by Mr Dunne to scrutinise all capital expenditure invoices which were being sent to the group as Mr Dunne believed savings could be made.

The work on Mr Dunne's home took place in the 1992 financial year and tax computations had to be submitted by March 1993. "I had a difficulty accounting" with the payment, Mr Irwin said. Because it was capital expenditure purportedly on new plant, the group would be able to claim it against tax. If it did not claim it, then the auditors would question that failure.

In March 1993 he sought and had a meeting with Mr Dunne in his Castleknock home where Mr Dunne gave a commitment he would resolve the matter. Mr Dunne said he would "sort it out" when he got back, Mr Irwin said. At the time Mr Dunne had been removed from his executive position in the Dunnes group.

Mr Irwin subsequently sought a meeting with two members of the Dunne trust, Mr Fox and Mr Frank Bowen. He told them about the payments and was instructed to reverse them and have them charged to Mr Dunne. The reversal was carried out. In this way there was "no loss to the Revenue Commissioners and no fraud".

In late 1992 an invoice landed on his desk referring to work on Dunnes Stores Ilac Centre, even though the work there was nearing completion. He telephoned the architect, the late Mr Peter Stevens, and was told the invoices were for work on Mr Michael Lowry's house in Holy Cross, Co Tipperary, and that Mr Dunne had instructed that it be described as work on the Ilac Centre. He telephoned Mr Dunne and expressed his concerns.

"It was just Ben Dunne being Ben Dunne," Mr Irwin said. "He always got his way." Further invoices relating to Mr Lowry's home arrived, again misdescribing the work as being in the Ilac Centre.

Mr Irwin said he met Mr Lowry and told him "this wasn't going to wash" and believed that Mr Lowry would have liked it to be addressed, but the only one who could address the matter was Mr Dunne. He raised the matter during his March 1993 meeting with Mr Dunne.

Mr Irwin said during 1992, Mr Lowry, who was owed money for the substantial savings he had achieved for Dunnes Stores, had been unable to get in contact with Mr Dunne. Mr Dunne "had medical problems" at the time.

At the time Mr Lowry told Mr Irwin he had bought a new house and needed work done on it. He asked if Mr Irwin could recommend an architect and builder and Mr Irwin recommended Mr Stevens and Faxhill Homes. They had worked on Mr Dunne's home so that "must be good enough", Mr Irwin told Mr Lowry.

Mr Iwrin said that if Faxhill Homes had refused to do as instructed, it would not have been given any more work by Dunnes Stores.