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Dublin building company director a ‘hindrance’ to liquidation, court told

Paddy Byrne, a director of Victoria Homes, has failed to provide ‘meaningful co-operation’, says liquidator

The Revenue is also a creditor in the proceedings, the High Court was told. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni/Collins
Barry J Whyte
Tue Jul 16 2024 - 17:35

The director of a Dublin building company has been accused of being an “unnecessary hindrance” to the company’s liquidation, the High Court has been told.

Paddy Byrne, a director of Victoria Homes, has failed to provide “meaningful co-operation” during the company’s liquidation, which has hampered the winding up of the company, according to its liquidator, Aidan García Díaz of Sabios.

Mr Garcia Diaz was appointed as liquidator to Victoria Homes earlier this year after an application by AF Construction Limited, which says it is owed about €447,000 by the company.

The Revenue is also a creditor in the proceedings, counsel Sally O’Neill told the High Court this week, adding the debt owed amounted to “some half a million euro” and that it was “not anticipated that that debt is going to remain at that figure”.

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Ms O’Neill also said there were several governance issues, some of which were set out in a report submitted to the court by Mr Garcia Diaz. In that document, he says that while he had “made substantial attempts to progress the liquidation”, his progress was “hampered primarily by a lack of meaningful co-operation by the company’s sole director, Mr Patrick Byrne”.

He outlines in the report how Mr Byrne had told him that the company did not have any books and records for the period after 2020 and that he did not have any records for the period prior to 2019. Mr Garcia Diaz said in the report that he did “not accept either position as being truthful”.

Mr Byrne subsequently produced “carefully selected documents, the existence of which shows that previous representations regarding books and records not being in existence were less than honest”, according to the report.

The report also states that Mr Byrne said that the company had ceased to trade in 2020, but that bank account statements showed that “Mr Byrne saw fit to make ... payments from the company’s bank account during 2023″. Mr Garcia Diaz said he had “serious concerns as to the probity of allowing such payments to be made”.

The report notes payments made to Branach Developments Limited, a company of which Mr Byrne is a director and shareholder. Mr Garcia Diaz notes that he asked Mr Byrne to “substantiate the work that Branach did on behalf of Victoria Homes [but] Mr Byrne has not been able to do so”. The liquidator concluded that he had “serious reservations at this juncture as to whether these monies were paid over in a bona fide manner”.

Mr Garcia Diaz also raised queries over the transfer of Ballinrahin House in Co Offaly, in which he says “Mr Byrne (and certainly his partner) live”. Mr Garcia Diaz’s report notes that Ballinrahin House “seems to follow Mr Byrne via his corporate vehicles”, noting that in 2014 “this property was in the name of Victoria Homes”, at which time Mr Byrne was “subject to a bankruptcy restriction until 2018″.

He further stated that “in 2018 this property moves to Victoria Holdings Limited in Belize which I understand Mr Byrne’s partner controls”, before then being moved to “Branach Developments ... where it now rests”. He concluded that “the effect of these movements is to put a substantial asset out of the reach of the creditors of Victoria Homes Limited”.