Widow of charity chief fined for failing to keep proper accounts

Patricia Kelly pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to keep proper books of account as a director of Console

Patricia Kelly (61), of Alexandra Manor, Clane, Co Kildare, leaving Dublin Circuit Court. Picture: Collins Courts

The widow of the late founder of suicide prevention charity Console has been fined €1,500 after pleading guilty to a charge of failing to keep proper books of account as a director of the company.

Patricia Kelly, 61, is the widow of the charity's former chief executive, the late Paul Kelly.

Console was set up in 2006 to provide services on a voluntary basis to people who suffered bereavement as a result of suicide. Mr Kelly and his wife were listed as company directors of the registered charity.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told yesterday that the charity received funding totalling €2.03m between 2010 and 2016, the majority from the HSE.

Kelly, of Alexandra Manor, Clane, Co Kildare pleaded guilty to one count of failure, other than wilfully, to keep proper books of account as a director of a company, contrary to the Companies Act, 1990, between December 2006 and May 2015.

The court heard the DPP was not pursuing other charges against Kelly after accepting a guilty plea on the basis that it was not a "wilful" failure, and as such, she could not be imprisoned for the offence. The maximum fine available to the court for this offence is €10,000.

The court was told that 96 payments - totalling €223,000 – made between 2006 and 2015 were traced by the investigation to accounts controlled by Mr Kelly, which also named his wife as an account holder.

Shane Costelloe, prosecuting, said the “lion's share” of the prosecution was directed against Mr Kelly, and it seemed he was the person controlling the accounts into which payments were made.

He said while Kelly was named on the accounts, there were issues with signatures, and the prosecution was unable to confirm that she was the person who signed certain documents.

Mr Kelly had been facing multiple charges but died by suicide in February 2020, the court heard.

Judge Martin Nolan on Thursday noted the court could not impose a custodial sentence due to the basis on which the plea was entered.

He said, “It seems while the State may have its suspicions, at a certain point it came to the conclusion it could not prove the allegations, so it adopted a position in that it accepted a plea."

The judge said the investigation took "hundreds or thousands of hours and liquidators were involved, and it seemed like a lot of money, and the main person they were interested in is no longer with us."

He said Kelly was now living in “straitened circumstances” and imposed a fine of €1,500 with six months to pay. She is also automatically disqualified as a director for five years.