Faxhill financial officer gives evidence

The financial officer for Faxhill Homes has said he filled out invoices connected with work on the homes of Mr Ben Dunne and Mr Michael Lowry without knowing they were incorrect.

Mr Ross Carr told Naas District Court he wrote out invoices for £1.4 million (€1.78 million) after receiving architect's certificates from the late Peter Stevens and without checking with any other source.

Mr Stevens's certificates, which authorised payments for the work, incorrectly described the work by Faxhill Homes as having been carried out on premises belonging to Dunnes Stores. Faxhill Homes had also carried out work on these premises.

Mr Carr said he never saw covering letters written by the architect that explained the certificates were incorrect and were concerned with the homes of Mr Dunne and Mr Lowry. Copies of such letters addressed to Faxhill Homes were produced in court.

At the time, 1992 and early 1993, Dunnes Stores was the largest customer of Faxhill Homes. Mr Carr was giving evidence on the 11th day of a trial where Faxhill Homes Ltd and its directors, Mr John Tierney and Ms Jennifer Tierney, are facing 26 charges under the Companies Acts. Guilty pleas have been entered in respect of a further three charges.

Giving evidence for the defence, Mr Carr told Mr Colm P. Condon, for the defendants, that he received the certificates by fax from Mr Stevens, who was engaged by Dunnes Stores.

Around March 1993, he said, he became concerned that money was being paid out by the company in relation to work on the two homes and no money was coming in.

When he checked with his company's quantity surveyor, he discovered the work had been paid for but improperly described. Mr Carr said he then carried out a reconciliation. His primary concern was that the company might not have been paid.

"I never gave any thought to changing the invoices in March 1993," Mr Ross said. He said the files he created after he'd discovered what had happened made it clear that the invoices mis-described the work. These files had remained with the company's books.

Asked by Mr David Conlan Smyth, for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, did it not seem unlikely that certificates for more than £1 million would be sent by fax without any covering letter, Mr Carr said he had no memory of any covering letter.

Mr Carr said Dunnes Stores never sought to recover the money it paid for work carried out on Mr Lowry's home. The case, before Judge Thomas Fitzpatrick, continues.