Courts

Widow of late Console suicide charity founder fined €1,500 over failure to keep proper accounts

Defence says Patricia Kelly (61), from Clane, Co Kildare, a person of limited means since her husband Paul’s death in 2020

Patricia Kelly (61) was married to Console's founder and former chief executive, Paul Kelly, who died in 2020. Photograph: Collins

Eimear Dodd
Thu Feb 22 2024 - 15:31

The widow of the late founder of suicide prevention charity Console has been fined €1,500 after pleading guilty to a charge of failing to keep proper books of account as a director of the company.

Patricia Kelly (61) was married to charity’s former chief executive, Paul Kelly, who died in 2020. Console was set up in 2006 to provide services on a voluntary basis to people who experienced bereavement due to suicide. Mr Kelly and his wife were listed as directors of the registered charity.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told on Thursday that Console received funding totalling €2.03 million between 2010 and 2016, with the majority coming from the HSE.

Kelly, of Alexandra Manor, Clane, Co Kildare, pleaded guilty to one count of failure, other than wilfully, to keep proper books of account as a director of a company, contrary to the Companies Act, 1990, between December 2006 and May 2015.

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The court heard that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was not pursuing other charges against Kelly after accepting a guilty plea on the basis that it was not a “wilful” failure and, as such, she could not be imprisoned for the offence. The maximum fine available to the court for this offence is €10,000.

The court was told that 96 payments – totalling €223,000 – made between 2006 and 2015 were traced by the investigation to accounts controlled by Mr Kelly, which also named his wife as an account holder.

Shane Costelloe SC, prosecuting, said the “lion’s share” of the prosecution was directed against Mr Kelly and it seemed he was the person controlling the accounts into which payments were made.

He said that while Patricia Kelly was named on the accounts, there were issues with signatures, and the prosecution was unable to confirm that she had signed certain documents. Mr Kelly had been facing multiple charges but died by suicide in February 2020, the court heard.

The late Paul Kelly, who founded the Console charity. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Judge Martin Nolan noted that the court could not impose a custodial sentence due to the basis on which the plea was entered. “It seems while the State may have its suspicions, at a certain point it came to the conclusion it could not prove the allegations, so it adopted a position in that it accepted a plea.”

The judge said the investigation took “hundreds or thousands of hours and liquidators were involved, and it seemed like a lot of money, and the main person they were interested in is no longer with us”.

He said Kelly was now living in “straitened circumstances” and imposed a fine of €1,500 with six months to pay. She was also automatically disqualified as a company director for five years.

The court heard the HSE started a national audit of companies that received grants in 2014 and an internal auditor was selected to review Console’s records and accounts in 2015. It quickly became clear there was a lack of co-operation by Console’s directors with this process. This continued until 2016, when the audit was finalised by the HSE and gave rise to concerns about how the money was dispersed by the charity.

A receiver was later appointed to the charity and they became aware that certain documents and reports had been moved off-site. An order was obtained for these records, which included hard drives analysed as part of the investigation.

During the investigation, it became clear that some people were unaware they were listed as directors of the charity and that inaccurate or incorrect accounts were submitted to the Companies Registration Office (CRO). The charity is in liquidation.

Console was set up in 2006 to provide services on a voluntary basis to people who experienced bereavement due to suicide. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins

Fraudulent invoices paid by the charity were also identified and the money was traced to personal accounts held by the couple. Other payments appeared to have been made to legitimate creditors, but it was found that these were also paid to accounts held by the couple.

Det Garda Garry Callinan agreed with Remy Farrell SC, defending, that the prosecution had intended to charge his client’s late husband with the same offences she faced before the plea was accepted.

It was also agreed that Kelly studied to be a beautician and has no training or expertise in bookkeeping. She is also facing ongoing civil proceedings brought by the liquidator of the charity.

Mr Farrell said Kelly has been “living under the shadow of this prosecution for a long time” and is on a widow’s pension and is of limited means.

He asked the court to impose a “modest or very modest” fine.

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