A TOTAL of £180,000 was paid into Ms Caroline Bailey's account from Bovale Development over a two-year period, the Flood tribunal has been told. Some of this money was paid into her personal bank account and this was done by putting inaccurate information into the Bovale Development accounts, counsel for the tribunal said yesterday.
Mr Joe O'Toole, auditor for Bovale Development, agreed with Mr Desmond O'Neill SC, that there was a possibility that entries in the accounts showing payments to Dublin County Council and the ESB, which were never paid, were used to hide money in Ms Bailey's personal account.
Mr O'Neill said £23,642 was marked in the accounts of Bovale Development as being paid to Dublin County Council. The same amount of money was shown to have been lodged in the personal account of Ms Caroline Bailey. Similarly, while accounts showed that £9,241 were paid to the ESB, this same amount was presented at the Bank of Ireland in Phibsboro, Mr O'Neill said.
Mr O'Neill asked if the amounts made out to Dublin County Council and the ESB had found their way into her accounts. Mr O'Toole replied that they had.
Mr O'Neill also asked about the devaluation of lands owned by Bovale Development. Mr O'Neill alleged that £328,968 was saved in capital acquisitions tax as lands owned by Bovale Development had been devalued.
The salaries of the Baileys was also raised yesterday.
In 1989, Mr Tom Bailey was paid £17,500 and Ms Caroline Bailey was paid £4,500. In 1990, the accounts showed Mr Tom Bailey was paid more than £21,000 while Ms Caroline Bailey was paid £6,500. In 1991, Mr Tom Bailey was paid more than £27,000, Ms Caroline Bailey was paid more than 14,000 and Mr Michael Bailey was paid over £30,000.
Mr O'Neill asked Mr O'Toole if given that Bovale was a successful company with a huge turnover, had he not thought to ask the directors how they funded their lifestyle with such low salaries. "I didn't have any basis for asking what standard of living they had . . . it would have been no business of mine," Mr O'Toole said.
Mr O'Neill also drew attention to money lodged to the personal accounts of the directors. In 1990, £131,760 was lodged and in 1991 £366,360.
Mr O'Neill said these lodgements were considerably in excess of what had been drawn by the directors from the company by way of salaries and loans. He added that 80 per cent of the directors' salaries had come from Bovale Development, and he said to Mr O'Toole that "there must be further sources to account for the money".
Mr O'Neill asked Mr O'Toole why he had not revealed this money in his audit. "You have the power to subpoena personal bank accounts, I don't," he said.
Mr O'Toole was questioned on why no record was kept of queries he had when carrying out audits on the Bovale accounts. "What is remarkable about your audits is that there are no points to be clarified," Mr O'Neill said. Mr O'Toole said there were 30 entries of points which had been resolved. He said although nowadays some meeting for clarification of audits would be recorded this had not been done in the early 1990s.
Mr O'Toole added that his company, McGrath and Co, had written to the Revenue Commissioners on Friday and was to carry out a major review of the Bovale accounts. "There is an obligation on us to try and ascertain what discrepancies there are," Mr O'Toole said.