Mulhern's Clayton Love turnover reaches €23.23m

Clayton Love Distribution Ltd, the frozen food distribution company owned by Mr John Mulhern, made a profit before taxation in 2002 of €938,194.Profits after tax were €715,035 and turnover was €23.23 million. The firm has a number of subsidiaries and the results are for the group.

Mr Mulhern, a son-in-law of former taoiseach Mr Charles Haughey, was named in the Ansbacher inspectors' report as an account holder.

Notes to the consolidated financial statements for the year ended January 2002, filed recently, reveal that Mr Mulhern had a loan of €969,082 from the group at the year's end. The maximum owed by Mr Mulhern during the year was €1.69 million.

The notes stated that the opening and closing balances of the loan exceeded 10 per cent of the net assets of the company within the meaning of section 32 of the Companies Act 1990, which outlines the restrictions that apply to directors' loans.

The notes also detail how an unsecured loan of €869,467 was given to Debon Arabia Contracts Ltd, a company connected with Mr Mulhern. During the year, the loan was repaid with interest of €80,414.

Mr Mulhern was interviewed at length by the Ansbacher inspectors about his dealings with Clayton Love and, in particular, the purchase of 45 per cent of the firm in the 1980s when he already owned 55 per cent. For a number of years after the purchase, this minority shareholding was held by an offshore company, College Trustees, and Mr Mulhern told the inspectors on oath that he did not know who it was being held for.

Subsequent to his evidence, Mr Mulhern's solicitor wrote to the inspectors to reveal that approximately half of the money paid to College Trustees for the minority shareholding when it was bought in the 1990s, went to Mr Mulhern. "This called into question the extent to which the inspectors could rely on Mr Mulhern's evidence," the inspectors wrote.

The report noted that Debon Arabia was set up in the Channel Islands in the early 1990s by the late Des Traynor for Mr Mulhern's use. More than €2 million was transferred from the Ansbacher deposits to a Debon Arabia account in AIB Channel Islands in Jersey in February 1994 in relation to the Clayton Love shareholding.