Directors accused of personal liability for debts

MARY CAROLAN A liquidator has claimed two directors of a building company are personally liable for some €7 million in proceeds from sale of apartments that were allegedly wrongly used to discharge personal debts to Danske Bank.

Liquidator Aidan Garcia also alleges Danske Bank "manipulated" the finances of Panshire Ltd to its own advantage and to the disadvantage of the Revenue, owed some €2.2 million in unpaid VAT, and other trade creditors owed €1.2 million.

While the directors – Mark Kilkenny and Patrick Rooney – had agreed to give the bank a charge over apartment sale proceeds as security for loans, neither director held any security or charge over Panshire and the bank should not have got any of the funds to which the company was entitled under building agreements, he claims.

Gary McCarthy SC, for Mr Garcia, applied yesterday to have the proceedings against Mr Kilkenny, Mr Rooney and Panshire and Danske Bank fast-tracked in the Commercial Court. Both men were in court and neither opposed transfer.

Mr Justice McGovern said he would exercise his discretion to admit the matter to the court list.

In an affidavit, Mr Garcia, of Copsey Murray Chartered Accountants, said he was appointed liquidator of Panshire in August 2011, replacing another liquidator appointed in 2010.

Panshire was incorporated in April 2004 to build Clearstream Court, an apartment complex, at McKee Avenue, Finglas. Mr Kilkenny and Mr Rooney were the directors and exclusive shareholders, he said.

The development was structured in such a way Mr Kilkenny, and possibly Mr Rooney, borrowed all the monies personally from Danske Bank, he said. Panshire was not a borrower and he believed the bank claims to have an unpaid mortgage over the Clearstream Court site, covering the houses and apartments built by Panshire.

The apartments sale structure consisted of two separate contracts which the purchaser would enter into, one with the developer for sale of the site and the second with Panshire to build the apartments.

Panshire was deprived of some €3.7 million from sales of apartments before the liquidation and those sums were paid to the bank in discharge of the liabilities of Mr Kilkenny and, possibly, of Mr Rooney, Mr Garcia claims.

While 62 apartments were unsold at the date of liquidation, many of those were sold between March 2010 and April 2014, when the bank appointed a receiver. Panshire never raised any sales invoices concerning the 62 apartments, he alleges.