Traynor `got cheque for £100,000 made out to Celtic Helicopters'

The late Mr Des Traynor received a cheque made out to Celtic Helicopters worth £100,000 in November 1992 from a trust to which he had given £180,000 worth of Dunnes Stores cheques a few days earlier, the tribunal heard. A second cheque worth £80,000 and made out to cash, went from Carlisle Trust Ltd to Mr Traynor six days later. Mr Pat O'Donoghue, a former group financial director for Dunnes Stores Group, confirmed that three cheques made out to cash had been drawn from the Dunnes Stores Number 6 account at Bank of Ireland, College Green, in the latter half of November 1992. The cheques, which totalled £180,000, were noted in Dunnes Stores accounts as being posted to a discount account in the names of Tender Meats and Neville's Bakeries. Both companies are connected with Dunnes Stores. Dunnes Stores established during its 1993 review arising from the activities of Mr Ben Dunne that the cheques were apparently lodged in the Bank of Ireland Rotunda branch, but could not trace them further because of the bank's refusal to identify the account holder. In January 1998 an inquiry by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment's authorised officer resulted in these payments being discovered. Dunnes solicitors were informed that the cheques had been lodged into an account of Carlisle Trust Ltd with the Bank of Ireland, Rotunda, and that £100,000 was subsequently paid to Celtic Helicopters Ltd and the balance of £80,000 was paid to Mr Traynor on another date.

Mr Patrick McCann, a director of Management and Investment Services Ltd, told the tribunal that on or about November 20th, 1992, his company received two cheques from Mr Traynor which were drawn on a Dunnes Stores Ireland account. Mr McCann was instructed by Mr Traynor, who was a director of and financial adviser to Carlisle Trust Ltd, to lodge the cheques to the account of the trust at Bank of Ireland, Rotunda, which Mr McCann did later that day.

Management and Investment Services Ltd looked after "the collection of rents and the collection and payment of service charges and items of that nature" for Carlisle Trust Ltd. They also held the trust's cheque book. One of the Dunnes Stores cheques lodged by Mr McCann on November 20th was to the value of £49,620, dated that day and made out to cash; the other cheque, which was also made out to cash, was worth £50,962 and was post-dated to November 23rd. Mr Traynor advised Mr McCann that a further lodgement of £79,418 would be made directly, and he subsequently ascertained that a cheque for that amount, dated November 27th 1992, was lodged.

At the same time, Mr Traynor instructed Mr McCann to draw two cheques on Carlisle Trust Ltd's No 1 account with the Bank of Ireland. The first cheque of £100,000 was dated November 24th and was payable to Celtic Helicopters. The second was dated November 30th and was to the value of £80,000 and payable to cash. Both cheques were drawn by Mr McCann and signed by Mr Samuel Field Corbett, managing director of Management and Investment Services Ltd. Both were sent to Mr Traynor.

Mr Traynor instructed Mr McCann that he should note these transactions as being contras, as they would have no net effect on the financial position of Carlisle Trust Ltd. As far as Mr McCann was aware, there was no commercial relationship between Dunnes Stores and Carlisle Trust Ltd and no commercial basis for the payment. Nor did he think there was any commercial relationship between Carlisle Trust Ltd and Celtic Helicopters.

Mr McCann had never been involved in any similar transaction for Carlisle Trust Ltd before or since. The principal of the company, Mr John Byrne, had told him Mr Traynor was a trusted financial adviser and director and was accustomed to giving instructions in relation to the operation of the accounts of the company. He later told Mr McCann he would not have expected Mr Traynor to have routed money through the company for purposes unconnected with its business.