IT was described as the "£400,000 fraud trial". Yet in the course of the trial it never became clear where all that £400,000 came from, or where it went.
Nonetheless, enough evidence emerged to make clear that, as counsel for the State put it, three sets of people were deceived into paying money for purposes other than they thought, and much of that money passed through the hands of Enda Mulkere.
Mulkere was a projects officer with the Shannon Free Airport Development Company (SFADCo). He had the authority to supervise work being done for the company, and liaise with people carrying out the work. He earned almost £26,000 a year and his wife earned £21,000 as a secondary teacher. He also had a 39 acre dairy and beef farm.
He was convicted on February last of 16 counts of fraud by false pretences on dates from October 1991 to June 1992 while an executive of SFADCo.
Two companies which carried out work lord SFADCo were Madden and Son Ltd (owners of Madden Pipelines and Madden Planthire) and McCarthy Bros. Ten of the charges were that he got cheques from Madden Pipelines and Madden Planthire on false pretences, two that he similarly got cheques from McCarthy Bros and four that he caused sums, or attempted to cause sums, to be paid to these companies by SFADCo by falsely pretending these monies were due to them.
It worked like this: he sought money from the contractors by explaining that SFADCo was in need of cash to pay sub contractors. He asked that the cheques be made out to "cash". Sometimes he suggested that these sums be included with the next invoice to SFADCo from the company for work it actually did itself. On other occasions he signed certificates for fictitious work allegedly done by these companies.
McCarthy Bros, for example, gave him money in good faith and was paid £17,710 by SFADCo, £10,739 of which was a cheque given to him for "cash" to pay "sub contractors".
However, when Mr Jack McCarthy, a director of the company, sought a further £26,752 from SFADCo, money paid to Mulkere allegedly for work being done for the company, SFADCo said no such work had been carried out. Mr McCarthy then sought, and obtained, a judgment against Mulkere in Ennis Circuit Court.
SFADCo became worried when executives discovered there was no documentation for alleged "further work" carried out by its regular contractor, Michael Madden & Son Ltd, worth £17,300 This amount had been paid by SFADCo.
Mr Madden also claimed Mulkere had asked him for cheques made out to "cash", explaining that SFADCo had cash flow difficulties and needed money to pay sub contractors. A total of £57,000 was made out by this company to "cash", and given to Mulkere. He got almost £37,000 from SFADCo, and went to the company seeking the rest. This sparked off an investigation by the company.
Mulkere insisted that the cheques were straightforward loans to him from Mr Madden to help him out of financial difficulties. These had arisen, he said, because due to bovine TB and his work with SFADCo his farm was neglected and he had to restock it at high prices; he was refurbishing his family home when interest rates went up and he was in debt to the Bank of Ireland, ACC and the First National Building Society.