Stokes twins barred as directors

Brothers Simon and Christian Stokes, whose Bang cafe restaurant in Dublin was wound up two years ago with debts of €2.4 million, have been disqualified from acting as directors of any company for the next four years.

The period of disqualification ends in March 2016, almost coinciding with the ending of a five-year restriction period previously imposed on the twins restraining their involvement with companies unless those companies meet minimal capital requirements.

The brothers had not opposed the restriction orders last year but sought to make submissions on any disqualification order and that matter was adjourned until today.

After being told the brothers would accept whatever period the court might impose, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan said she was satisfied the appropriate period was six years.

Taking into account mitigating factors, including the brothers' acceptance they were irresponsible in the management of Mayfair Ltd, which operated the Bang cafe, she reduced that period to just over four years. Other mitigating factors included the effect of the brothers personally of the winding up of their businesses.

They now work in another restaurant, Il Segreto, Merrion Row, of which their father is a director, and earn €2,500 per month each, Simon Stokes said in an affidavit on their behalf.

Mr Stokes said the intense publicity surrounding the demise of their business had already acted as a significant punishment. Both had young families and liabilities from their business activities arising from personal guarantees, he said.

Mr Stokes accepted they had been irresponsible, denied they were dishonest or involved in calculated wrongdoing and said, if anything, their behaviour could be characterised as incompetence. While the companies they had established were in ruins, the
businesses themselves were sold and continue to trade.

What had happened would cast a long shadow on their lives but, they hoped, after serving a period of disqualification, they could use their entrepreneurial skills again, he said.

Bernard Dunleavy, for Mayfair liquidator Tom Murray, said there were three particular areas of conduct by the brothers which fell outside the general course of irresponsibility and would warrant a more substantial penalty than restriction orders.

The funds of the companies were treated as though they were the directors' personal funds, he said. There was personal use by the directors of company credit cards: from January 2007 to June 2009, €127,275 was used on Ulster Bank business credit cards, and from June 2008 to June 2009, €19,851 was used on Bank of Ireland business credit cards, he said.

The court previously heard large sums of Mayfair company monies were used to pay personal bills incurred by Simon Stokes at hotels and restaurants including the Coral Reef Club in Barbados. Payments by Christian Stokes totalled €115,891 including to Ashford Castle; and the Skovshoved Hotel, Denmark.

The liquidator also complained of misconduct in the use of inter-company loans whereby €721,321 was loaned from a subsidiary Auldcarn Ltd which was insolvent by the end of 2005. When the Revenue Commissioners obtained an order of attachment against the directors in November 2009, they by-passed that by trading from the bank account of another of their companies, Missford Ltd, counsel said.

The liquidator also accepted there were mitigating factors in that the brothers had lost a lot personally and unlike many, endured a very public fall. While he had no hesitation in saying their conduct was serious, it appeared to the liquidator that conduct arose more from "immaturity and a want of care" than wanton misconduct, Mr Dunleavy said.

Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan said the matter was serious and the brothers' conduct made them unfit to be concerned in the management of a company. The primary purpose of the relevant law was to protect third parties who may deal in the future with companies with which the twins may be associated, she said.