Man submitted ‘fictitious’ expenses, tribunal hears

A former accountant with the Irish Coursing Club submitted “fictitious” mileage expenses worth €3,800 a year after striking an agreement with his former boss and the club’s former auditors, a tribunal has heard.

Edmund O’Brien, aged 50, of Newmarket, Co Cork, has taken an action for unfair dismissal against the Irish Coursing Club and its associated companies, including the Irish Sporting Press which publishes a weekly newspaper on greyhound racing and coursing.

He was dismissed in Jan 2010 for alleged falsification of accounts and misappropriation of funds.

The Employment Appeals Tribunal heard yesterday, on the third day of evidence following previous sittings in Clonmel last November, that Mr O’Brien received payments above his €80,000 annual salary totalling €65,000 between 2000 and 2007.

The money was for commission on advertising revenue, “mileage” which was agreed at €3,800 a year and for which he had to “make up” claims, and “actual mileage” when he did have to drive to various locations.

Asked during cross-examination by solicitor David Gaffney, for the coursing club, if booklets containing all of the mileage claims were “fictitious,” Mr O’Brien answered: “Correct”.

He told the tribunal he took up duty with the club in 1991 and his main job was to produce quarterly accounts and monthly income statements, which he presented to the chief executive. This, at the time, was Jerry Desmond who has since died. The agreement about the €3,809 was made with the Clonmel-based club’s former auditors Ernst and Young, along with Jerry Desmond, he said.

The advertising commission started in 2000, around the time a new greyhound newspaper came out, and the Irish Sporting Press came up with the idea of running advertising features to coincide with big events in the sport, as a way of generating revenue.

In relation to the management accounts, Mr O’Brien said he always presented them to Jerry Desmond for review and Mr Desmond would ask for journal adjustments.

“He would come back to me and say, ‘I want to show more profits’ or ‘less loss’ or whatever.”

The accounts related to the coursing club itself, the Sporting Press and its subsidiary Clonmel Printers Ltd, Powerstown Park horseracing track, which is owned by the club, and its subsidiary Powerstown Racing Ltd, and Powerstown Holding Co.

He would make the journal adjustments “on the instruction of my employer” and Mr Desmond explained to him they were for commercial reasons. “He wanted to show the Sporting Press in a positive light and show it was making profits so it would discourage the other newspaper from going on.”

Chairman of the tribunal, Leachlain Ó Catháin, said “unfortunately Mr Desmond is no longer with us so isn’t in a position to give evidence”.

Edmund O’Brien was arrested on Sept 4, 2009, but no charge was ever brought against him or anybody else and there was never any money missing from the club accounts, he said.

The case continues today.