Irvine in ‘€1.8m bar loss’

FORMER Formula One racing driver Eddie Irvine claims he has lost €1.8m over his investment in one of Dublin’s trendiest bars.

Details of a row involving the Northern Ireland sports star and his former best friend over the running of Cocoon - a popular watering hole on Dublin’s Royal Hibernian Way - emerged at a hearing of the Employment Appeals Tribunal yesterday.

John Foley, Mr Irvine’s former friend and business partner, is claiming he was wrongfully dismissed by the company that owns Cocoon. The tribunal heard yesterday that Mr Irvine became a 50% shareholder in Calview Investments in return for unsecured loans of over €1 million which he gave to Foley - the owner of the other half-share in the firm.

Lawyers for Mr Irvine said Mr Foley had first approached him in 2000 for several loans to keep Calview afloat.

Tom Mooney SC, for the motor racing star, said it had become clear within a short period of making an initial loan of €317,000 that Mr Foley’s businesses, which were also involved in running O’Neill’s pub on Tara Street, Dublin, were “utterly insolvent”.

Mr Mooney said the driver had continued to advance unsecured personal loans to his friend as he believed Cocoon was a fundamentally viable business.

Mr Irvine eventually agreed in 2002 to accept a 50% share in Calview as repayment of the loans. However, he insisted on drawing up an agreement containing strict clauses which restricted Mr Foley from making any payments on behalf of Calview without approval from Mr Irvine’s representatives.

However, Mr Mooney said Mr Foley continued to act in breach of everyone of these instructions and appeared to regard Calview as “his own personal fiefdom”.

“When faced with these facts not only did he deny them, but he sought to hide them,” said Mr Mooney.

Mr Irvine, who is due to give evidence in the case next week, is claiming that Calview was entitled to dismiss Mr Foley for “at best, incompetence and at worst, misconduct”.

Despite being aware of the restrictions, Mr Mooney said Mr Foley had engaged in the “outrageous behaviour” of continuing to cash personal cheques in Cocoon which he knew would bounce.

Paul O’Hare, a management consultant engaged by Mr Irvine, said he believed there was a serious lack of business control by Mr Foley in the running of the Cocoon bar. He claimed widely varying margins in the company’s accounts suggested money was being taken out of the business.

“It was clear laid-down procedures were not being adhered to,” said Mr O’Hare.

In a letter to Mr Irvine in January 2003, Mr Foley told his friend - whom he called Edmund - that he totally deplored the “unfair, unjustified and unsubstantiated” allegations being made about the way he ran Cocoon.

The hearing continues on Monday morning.