Directors of oil cartel companies face ban

Some of the convicted members of a home-heating oil cartel in Galway city and county are facing disqualification for five years from working as a director or manager of a company as a result of their convictions for price-fixing.

Several cases against the bigger alleged members of the cartel are pending, but 12 individuals and companies have been convicted by the circuit criminal courts in Dublin and Galway for their part in a conspiracy to increase by 10 per cent the price that domestic customers were charged for gasoil and kerosene.

The convicted cartel members have already received fines totalling €61,500 from the courts, after a long-running investigation by the Competition Authority. The criminal proceedings taken against them by the Director of Public Prosecutions have ended.

But, at least four of them face automatic disqualification under a provision in Section 160 of the Companies Act of 1990 which prevents a person who is convicted on indictment of any indictable offence "in relation to a company" from acting as a director or taking a management role for five years.

They are: Con Muldoon, formerly of Muldoon Oil; Seán Hester of All Star Oil; Kevin Cunniffe of Hi-Way Oil; and Michael McMahon of Fermac Oil & Transport. Each pleaded guilty to price-fixing in relation to their companies.

It unclear whether Section 160 applies to the alleged "enforcer" of the cartel, JP Lambe, who received a €15,000 fine and a suspended sentence for this role.

Lambe took part in the cartel through the Connacht Oil Promotion Federation. Because the federation is not a company, there is some legal doubt over whether the section applies to him. It is also unclear whether Section 160 applies to former Loughrea oil distributor, Michael Flanagan, who was convicted in relation to his activities as a sole trader.

The courts are obliged under the Companies Act to notify convictions "in relation to a company" to the Companies Office, which maintains a disqualification register. The Director of Corporate Enforcement, Paul Appleby, said his office had "not been formally made aware of the details of these cases" or of the circumstances in which the convictions were obtained.

Mr Appleby cited Section 160 and its provision for a five-year disqualification "unless the court orders a greater or lesser" disqualification term.

"Under Section 167 of the 1990 Act, where a court convicts a person of an offence which has the effect of his/her being deemed to be subject to a disqualification order, a court officer is required to notify the Companies Registration Office of the details of the conviction," he said.

The Register of Disqualified Persons at the Companies Office contained 10 names at the end of 2004. After representations from Mr Appleby's office, the Courts Service reviewed convictions in the previous five years to identify those qualifying as a "deemed disqualification".