Aircoach finance director takes firm to court in bid to protect his job

A finance director who claims there were accounting irregularities in the accounts of First Aircoach, which operates a fleet of 40 buses in Dublin, yesterday secured a High Court order restraining the company from treating him other than finance director.

Mr Joseph Shortall, a native of England with an address at Castleknock, Dublin, said he had moved to Ireland to take up a position with Last Passive Ltd, trading as First Aircoach, and his employment began on February 2nd.

Just before taking the €77,000 per annum position, he was advised the company's accounts were "an appalling mess", Mr Roddy Horan, for Mr Shortall, said. However, Mr Shortall had not anticipated the extent of that mess.

Mr Shortall has taken proceedings challenging the purported termination of his employment in a letter dated March 2nd. Mr Justice Kelly yesterday granted him an interim order restraining the company from treating him in any way other than as finance director.

In an affidavit, Mr Shortall, a father of three, said he had worked with Great Eastern Railway Ltd, a subsidiary of transport conglomerate First Group plc. His wife was Irish and they had decided to move to Ireland. He secured a position with First Aircoach in Dublin, which had been acquired by First Group in October 2003.

Mr David Quinn, divisional finance and commercial director of Centrewest Buses Ltd, another subsidiary of First Group, had told him that Mr John O'Sullivan, managing director of Aircoach, was perceived as a person who had to be treated delicately and that First Group had regarded Mr O'Sullivan as not being a large company person.

Mr Shortall said that, on starting work, he discovered that no management accounts had been completed since October 31st and no bank reconciliation had taken place during the same period. He found this extremely surprising in a company with a turnover of €10 million and operating a fleet of 40 buses.

He had to undertake a large volume of work to restore the company's books to some resemblance of order and sought assistance but did not get it. He was working 12-hour days and weekends.

He said some €143,000 was due to the Revenue Commissioner for outstanding PAYE and PRSI for the 2003 tax year and he had told Mr O'Sullivan penalties would apply were that not paid by February 14th, 2004, to which Mr O'Sullivan had replied that it was "okay to owe people money".

Over the weekend of February 14th/15th, a friend of his, an ex-employee of First Group and a qualified professional accountant, was visiting him and had assisted him on Saturday and Sunday in preparing a bank reconciliation statement. He had discovered a further irregularity in the accounts.

On February 16th, he was summoned to Mr O'Sullivan's office, who demanded to know who the third person on the premises was. Mr Shortall said he told Mr O'Sullivan the man was a trusted accountant but Mr O'Sullivan said this amounted to breach of trust. He had told Mr O'Sullivan of a number of matters regarding the accounts, including that Mr O'Sullivan's personal car was being charged as a direct debit to the company at the rate of €2,000 a month.

Mr O'Sullivan directed him to go home and not report for work the following day, Mr Shortall said. He later received a letter stating he was suspended.

He was subsequently told his employment was terminated and that he would receive a payment in lieu of notice. He believed this purported dismissal was not in good faith, was in breach of contract and unlawful.