Paul Codd, a former Wexford hurler and All-Ireland medal winner, has been jailed for contempt over refusing to cooperate with the official administering his bankruptcy.
Codd, of Askinfarney, Clonroche, Co Wexford, was adjudicated bankrupt at the High Court in March 2013 over failure to satisfy a judgment secured against him in 2011 for €530,000. The combined debts of himself and his company are estimated at €4.9 million.
On Thursday in the High Court, Ms Justice Caroline Costello made orders committing Codd to Mountjoy Prison to July 27th for contempt arising from refusing to answer questions about his assets put to him by the official assignee, Chris Lehane.
Codd was arrested earlier in Co Wexford and brought before the court by gardaí on foot of a warrant issued by the court in March 2014 because he had not complied with his undertakings, given in January 2014, to meet with Mr Lehane. The warrant was not executed until this week because Codd was believed to be living outside of the jurisdiction.
Codd was committed to prison after he failed to answer questions put to him by Mr Lehane. He was warned by the judge “consequences would flow” if he did not answer.
Mr Lehane said the examination was required due to Codd’s failure to co-operate with his office and disclose details about his assets. He had serious concerns including that Codd had transferred land to another party, which a bankrupt cannot do. If Codd co-operated, the matter would be finished, Mr Lehane said.
In his examination, Mr Lehane asked Codd about his bank accounts. Codd responded all his accounts had been frozen and he had been locked out of them by the Official Assignee.
He asked for time to get legal representation and said he was unhappy the examination was proceeding in the presence of lawyers for other parties and the media. “I have nobody, I have no legal help, and that is not very fair,” he said, adding he felt he was being “railroaded” into dealing with the matter.
He said he applied for free legal aid, which he said he was entitled to, but “got no soot at all from the court”.
When the judge asked him about the location of farm machinery which had been leased to his company, Codd said the items were “in a field near Wexford town”, but he didn’t know who owned the field. The judge said there are “many fields” near Wexford. Codd did not specify any particular field.
After making repeated requests to Codd to answer questions, the judge said Codd was not willing to co-operate.
The judge rejected the suggestion Codd was being railroaded into anything and committed him to prison to July 27th or until he was willing to purge his contempt.
In December 2014, Codd was briefly jailed for his alleged non-compliance with the bankruptcy process. Two days before Christmas, he secured his release from Mountjoy Prison. He was brought there on December 21st following his arrest on foot of a warrant, issued in October 2013, for alleged non-compliance.
He was released after providing a statement of affairs to the official assignee and promising to co-operate. He subsequently claimed he was coerced into giving undertakings to cooperate with his bankruptcy in a bid to avoid spending Christmas in prison.
The following January Codd gave sworn undertakings to co-operate with Mr Lehane and return several items of machinery which had been leased to Codd’s now dissolved company Paul Codd Ltd.
Mr Lehane said Codd had failed to co-operate and therefore had breached his undertakings and “was in contempt of court”. Codd had also not complied with an undertaking to return machinery leased by Friends First Finance, or with orders to return €460,000 worth of farm machinery leased by Deutsche Leasing Ireland, it was stated.
Codd’s bankruptcy arose after David Deasey, a dairy farmer from Timoleague, Co Cork, sold Codd 46 acres of land at Askinfarney for about €800,000. While a deposit of €40,000 was paid, Codd had not completed the sale, the court heard.
Mr Deasey obtained a judgment of €530,326 against Codd in 2011 and, when that was not satisfied, petitioned the court to have Codd adjudicated bankrupt.