Two companies run by landlord Marc Godart have filed documents with the Companies Registration Office showing them lodging all their income via ATMs in Dublin city centre.
More than €66,000 was lodged in this way during 2022 in nine lodgements by the two companies, all but one lodgement via an ATM at the Bank of Ireland branch at 6/7 Lower O’Connell Street, Dublin, according to the documents. A lodgement of €5,250 was made via the ATM at Bank of Ireland College Green.
The lodgements were the sole income of the companies, GL Real Invest Ltd and Mobile Homes Phoenix Park Ltd, which together lodged a total during 2022 of €66,240, according to the documents. The largest ATM lodgement was €18,260, and the smallest €4,210. It is not clear whether the lodgements were cash, cheques or a mix of the two, but as the companies are associated with short-term letting to foreign nationals it is more likely that it is cash.
A request for a comment from Mr Godart met with no response. He is a director or secretary of 52 Irish companies, most of which have, to date, filed abridged accounts, and the bulk of which appear to be linked to short-term letting.
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The recent filings by GL Real Invest and Mobile Homes Phoenix Park, however, are one-page documents that simply list income and expenditure for the year. There is no profit figure stated in the documents, which are not accounts, no indication that any tax or dividend was paid, no figure for assets, and no figure for liabilities. Total expenses by the two companies were €6,617, meaning their combined income exceeded expenditure by €59,593.
The majority of the lodgements are tagged as “carried money” in the documents, while others are tagged as “long term and commercial”. The debits on the documents include payments from a Bank of Ireland account, but also from Revolut, and include payments to cleaners and contractors, the payment of utilities, the purchase of “handyman materials”, plugs, and a helmet from Decathlon.
Mr Godart, who is from Luxembourg, has along with his family invested in property in Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland in recent years and is primarily involved in the short-term letting business, usually by way of rooms with multiple beds in them. He has had a number of negative findings made against him by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) following complaints by tenants and has had fire safety notices issued against him by Dublin Fire Brigade.
Earlier this month two of his companies, Capel Grand Inn and Green Label Property Investments, were fined €7,500 and ordered to pay substantial costs for “egregious” breaches of the planning laws in relation to unauthorised Airbnb lettings in buildings on Capel Street, Railway Street and Beaver Street in Dublin city centre.
As with most of his Irish companies GL Real Invest, of Rueben House, Rialto, Dublin 8, and Mobile Homes Phoenix Park Ltd, of 53 Sarsfield Road, Dublin 10, are owned by Itzig Sarl, a Godart company based in Luxembourg. Mr Godart’s father, Rene Godart, in a recent filing for another company that is part of Mr Godart’s Irish operations, lists 25 Irish companies of which she is a director, all of which are involved in holiday and short-stay accommodation.
As well as renting out property owned by his companies Mr Godart is also involved in the renting of property from other people which he also lets, both as residential and commercial accommodation.
He also has some property development interests in Ireland.
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