The High Court has made orders for the winding up of companies operating two restaurants of chef Conrad Gallagher.
The Revenue Commissioners had petitioned the court to wind up Boutique Restaurants Concepts Ltd and Super Potato Ltd, which run Salon des Saveurs restaurant in Dublin and Conrad’s Kitchen in Sligo, after the firms failed to satisfy demands for unpaid taxes of more than €160,000.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy today said she was satisfied to make orders winding up both firms as they were insolvent and unable to pay their debts.
The judge appointed Ian Lawlor, of JPA Brenson Lawlor Limited, as liquidator to both firms, which have registered addresses at Aungier Street, Dublin 2.
Mr Gallagher, who was just 26 when he won a Michelin star, is not listed as a director of either company. His wife Candice and mother Evelyn Gallagher are the directors of both companies.
The judge refused an application by Barry Mansfield, for the companies, to further adjourn the petitions seeking to wind up the firms.
Counsel said he wanted an adjournment to allow the companies time to see if external funding could be obtained in order to satisfy the debt. As neither firm was currently trading, the Revenue would suffer no prejudice or dissipation of assets if time was allowed to put together proposals that would be acceptable to the Revenue, he said.
Mark O’Mahony, for the Revenue, opposed the adjournment application as “devoid of merit”. When the judge asked whether “a bird in the hand was not worth two in the bush to Revenue”, counsel said he suspected “there was no bird at all”. Counsel said no concrete offer had been made to the Revenue to settle the debt since the demands was made and nothing had been out on paper to show the companies would be able to secure external funding.
Counsel said Boutique Restaurant Concepts, which was incorporated in January 2010, owed approximately €116,000 in unpaid VAT, PAYE and PRSI. A demand for payment was served on the firm last December.
Super Potato Ltd owed his client €50,000 in unpaid VAT, PAYE and PRSI. It was incorporated in September 2010 and was served with a demand for payment last May.
Having appointed Mr Lawlor as liquidator, the judge ordered the directors of the firms to file statements of affairs and adjourned the matter to the High Court Examiner list later this year.