‘earlyish’ plea’ | 

Widow of Console founder fined €1,500 for accounting irregularities

The revelations about the financial irregularities had a seismic impact on the wider charity sector at the time

Today at 13:55

Patricia Kelly, the widow of the late Console suicide bereavement charity founder Paul Kelly, has been fined €1,500 for accounting irregularities.

The matters arose from the collapse of the charity in 2016 amid revelations of significant financial mismanagement and extravagant spending.

Patricia Kelly (63), with an address at Alexandra Manor in Clane, Co Kildare, had originally been charged with three counts of fraudulent trading and money laundering but pleaded guilty last December to, other than wilfully, failing to keep accounts that correctly recorded and explained the transactions of the charity between December 6, 2006 and May 31, 2015.

An investigation launched by gardaí attached to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement, as the Corporate Enforcement Authority was then known, took three and a half years to complete.

Following its completion, Paul Kelly had been expected to appear in court in early 2020. However, he took his own life in March of that year before he could be charged.

His wife was charged the following month, but her trial was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The revelations about the financial irregularities had a seismic impact on the wider charity sector at the time, a sector that was already reeling from the controversies at the Rehab Group and the Central Remedial Clinic.

But these controversies paled in comparison with what emerged at Console, where State money and donations were used to fund the extravagant lifestyles of Paul and Patricia Kelly.

Both resigned in June 2016 after lavish spending and breaches of Revenue rules were exposed.

Several credit cards, expensive foreign travel, restaurants and designer clothing were all features of the spending.

In court papers, David Hall, who was brought in as an interim CEO before the charity was liquidated, said there had been “a tactical and considered web of deceit” and “the prolonged abuse of public trust and public monies”.

The scandal led to a sharp decline in donations to charities generally.

It also prompted the Government to commence laws giving the Charities Regulator stronger investigative and enforcement powers.

A liquidator would later file a claim for judgments totalling almost €750,000 against Paul Kelly, Patricia Kelly and their son Tim.

Liquidator Tom Murray has already secured a judgment against the estate of Paul Kelly, but his claim against Patricia Kelly has been on hold pending the outcome of her criminal case. The claim against Tim Kelly has also yet to be heard.

Tim Kelly, who ran Console’s sister charity in the UK, has denied any wrongdoing and has not been the subject of criminal charges.

At the sentencing hearing in the Circuit Criminal Court today before Judge Martin Nolan, Detective Garda Gary Callinan outlined that investigations into the running of the charity found that 96 payments totalling just over €223,000 were directed into the personal accounts of Paul and Patricia Kelly between 2006 and 2015.

The payments were not made directly from the charity but via fraudulent invoices and apparent payments to creditors, with the money ending up in their personal accounts. He said accounts being submitted annually were wrong.

He said that Console had received funding of €2m from the State, largely through the HSE, during this time.

Counsel for the DPP, Shane Costello, said the maximum sentence allowable in the case was a fine of €10,000.

Counsel for Mrs Kelly, Remy Farrell, said his client was now living on a widow’s pension and in receipt of fuel allowance that was means tested.

He asked Judge Nolan to take her ‘earlyish’ plea into consideration, as well as the fact that she had lived “in the shadow of prosecution” of more serious charges that were ultimately to be put to her husband.

The court heard the “lion’s share’ of the evidence in the case was pointed at Paul Kelly, and that he had been controlling the accounts.

Mr Farrell said Mrs Kelly had a Leaving Cert education after which she trained as a beautician.

Judge Nolan said the investigation took hundreds, if not thousands, of hours, and the main person of interest, Paul Kelly, was “no longer with us”.

He said Mrs Kelly now appeared to be living in probably straitened circumstances. He fined her €1,500 and gave her six months to pay.

Paul Kelly, from Ballyfermot in Dublin, set up Console in 2002, saying he was motivated to do so after lhis 21-year-old sister Sharon took her own life in 1997.

It initially started as a support group but grew rapidly, and within a decade it had counselling centres in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Wexford, Tralee and Mayo.

Soon afterwards, it opened a centre in London for Irish emigrants.

At the time it was liquidated, Console had 12 full-time staff, 60 part-time counsellors and 376 people attending counselling.

The deception began to unravel in early 2016 when an audit uncovered abuses.

It was revealed around €500,000 was spent on salaries and cars over a three-year period.

Credit cards were used to pay for expensive trips to Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Italy, France and England.

According to court papers, a forensic accountant found that, in 2015, four company credit cards were used to pay bills totalling €203,000 for household shopping, Netflix, flights, Airbnb costs and the Local Property Tax.

It was also alleged in court filings that Paul Kelly made €28,785 in cash withdrawals, while €32,900 was spent on restaurants, €8,377 on clothing and €2,083 on Rugby World Cup tickets.

Paul Kelly drove a Mercedes costing €57,000, while Patricia Kelly had a €67,000 Audi.