The High Court has made an order winding up the Orthopaedic Bed Company Ltd (OBCL), whose principal director is a former Co Leitrim "Man of the Year", Mr Patrick (Paraic) Bruen, of Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim.

In a preliminary report to the court, Mr Fergus C. Ahern, appointed yesterday as the company's liquidator, said he believed OBCL funds had been improperly used by Mr Bruen for his own financial gain.

On the petition of the Revenue Commissioners, Mr Justice Lavan appointed Mr Ahern, a chartered accountant of Boyle, Co Roscommon, as liquidator.

The judge also continued orders made at an earlier court hearing, which restrain Mr Bruen or another of his companies, Drumshannon Ltd, from disposing of premises at Drumshanbo or Dublin Road, Carrick-on-Shannon.

In his preliminary report, Mr Ahern said he had ascertained that Mr Bruen was sentenced to four years in prison in Lille, France, for swindling and fraudulent advertising. He added that he believed the funds of OBCL were improperly used by Mr Bruen for his personal gain.

No proper control appeared to have been exercised over cash or over the personal expenditure of Mr Bruen, Mr Ahern said. Creditors, supplying goods and services, appeared to have funded the business and some had suffered considerable losses.

Mr Bruen had instigated a large number of litigation proceedings against a variety of persons involved in the financial services business.

In an affidavit, the Collector General, Mr Liam J. Irwin, said that the company, which has registered offices at Pearse Street, Dublin, appeared to have total liabilities of about €1,162,765 and the liability to the Revenue was about €570,000.

Mr Bernard Fitzpatrick, a tax inspector, said in another affidavit that the company, which sold beds and bedroom furniture, had a retail sales outlet at Pearse Street and operated a call centre for telesales from premises at the Drumshanbo Enterprise Centre. He believed it had effectively ceased trading in November 2002.

The Companies Office records listed the directors as Mr Paraic Bruen of Corry Ard House, Drumshanbo, and Mr John Hyde of Pembroke Street, Dublin.

Mr Fitzpatrick said he believed there was no such person as John Hyde and that this was simply a fictitious identity created by Mr Bruen to satisfy the requirements of the companies' legislation.

The inspector said the company's accounts showed that its creditors, excluding the Revenue Commissioners, were owed €592,765 and its main creditors were a UK company, which was owed €193,332, and an Irish company, which was owed €107,781.

The company did not own its premises and the levels of stock were extremely low. The only known asset of the company was a loan owed to it by Mr Bruen of €745,819. Mr Bruen had claimed that some of these monies from the company helped finance the purchase of two properties - a warehouse at Dublin Road, Carrick-on-Shannon, and a building site at Carrick Road, Drumshanbo.

Mr Fitzpatrick said both properties were currently for sale. Mr Bruen agreed to furnish a letter of undertaking confirming that he would retain sufficient funds from the sale of the building site to meet the company's tax liabilities but when he (Mr Fitzpatrick) returned to collect the letter, Mr Bruen was not present and the letter was not furnished. He was told Mr Bruen had gone to England to set up a new company to take over the business of the Orthopaedic Bed Co Ltd.

Mr Ahern, who was appointed a provisional liquidator by the High Court on February 6th, in his preliminary report to the court, said he had not met Mr Bruen since February 10th. Mr Bruen's phone was disconnected and his wife had declined to give information as to his whereabouts.

Mr Ahern referred to a number of companies of which Mr Bruen is a director including Skin Cap (NI) Ltd, which was the subject of proceedings issued in 1998 by the Attorney General and the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) against Mr Bruen trading as Swiss Laboratories, and as Brenntford plc and as Skin Cap Ltd and/or Skin Cap (Northern Ireland) Ltd.

The IMB alleged that certain batches of the range of products marketed as "Skin Cap" were believed to contain clobetasol propionate, which was described as a "highly potent cortiscosteroid" that should only be used under strict medical supervision and supplied on a doctor's prescription by a registered pharmacist.