A LEADING mid west contra for told the £400,000 Shannon Development fraud trial he complained to the accused man Clare Fianna Fail councillor, Mr Enda Mulkere, about being asked by him to act as "banker" to the company.
Mr Thomas Madden said he told Mr Mulkere he was a contractor and not a banker and could not continue lending money to Shannon Free Airport Development Company.
This was the third time within him to give him cheques made out to cash to pay subcontractors. Mr Mulkere claimed SFADCo had a cash flow problem and could not pay subcontractors.
Mr Madden was giving evidence on the third day of Mr Mulkere's trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on charges concerning the alleged fraud.
The charges allege that, with intent to defraud, Mr Mulkere obtained cheques from McCarthy Brothers (Ennis) Ltd, Madden Pipelines Ltd and Madden Planthire Ltd, and that he caused sums, or attempted to cause sums, to be paid to these contractors by SFADCo.
Mr Mulkere (46), of Carrow Na Cloughy, Crusheen, Co Clare has pleaded not guilty to a total of 17 charges of committing the fraud by false pretences on dates from October 1991 to June 1992 while he was an executive at SFADCo.
Two charges allege he obtained cheques from McCarthy Bros II charges allege he obtained cheques from Maddens and four charges allege he caused or attempted to cause cheques to be paid by SFADCo to both companies by falsely pretending the entirety of the monies was lawfully due to them.
Mr Madden told Mr Paul O'Higgins SC, prosecuting, that Madden Pipelines began a £1 million site development contract for SFADCo at Plassey in August 1991. The project was supervised on behalf of SFADCo by Mr Mulkere.
Mr Mulkere approached him on November 5th, 1991 and said he was under "terrible pressure to pay subcontractors who carried out emergency fencing and other work on the site before Madden Pipelines started there.
Mr Madden said the accused man claimed that due to a cash flow problem SFADCo could not pay them. Witness said to leave it with him and when the accused man rang him back later that day he said he could not pay out monies to subcontractors without a C2 Revenue Commissioners' tax clearance certificate.
The accused man replied the people he was dealing with would not know what a C2 was. He asked that the cheques be made out to cash and said he would look after the payments.
Mr Madden said he recorded the details in his diary. He instructed the preparation of cheques drawn on Madden Pipe lines for the amounts specified and handed over these cheques to Mr Mulkere when he met him on November 6th in the carpark of Parkway Shopping Centre.
Around this time also his company carried out five or six other small contracts for SFADCo to the value of £36,000 and was paid for them.
Mr Madden said he was contacted again on November 21st by the accused man and met him at Plassey. It was a wet evening and he sat in Mr Mulkere's car.
The accused man again said he was under "terrible pressure" to pay subcontractors for refurbishing and other works and that SFADCo had no money.
Witness told Mr O'Higgins (with Mr Paul McDermott) he wrote down the amounts listed by the accused man. He rang his office to have the cheques delivered to the Plassey site office and he handed them to Mr Mulkere. They were payable to cash.
Mr Madden said the accused man rang him again shortly after that and asked to meet him for coffee in Jurys Hotel. Mr Mulkere read out a list of subcontractors he said he could not pay due to the SFADCo cash flow problem.
At this meeting Mr Madden said he was a contractor and not a banker for SFADCo. He asked Mr Mulkere how he was to be repaid for the previous cheques. The accused man said he would have the amounts certified by the consulting engineers as work done and he would be paid that way.
Mr Madden said he brought the list of amounts Mr Mulkere wanted to be paid back with him, having said again he could not keep on financing SFADCo.
He got a phonecall about two days later from Mr Mulkere who said he was under "terrible pressure" from some of the sub contractors and called out a number of the amounts on the list.
He had cheques for these amounts prepared payable to cash and his recollection was they were collected by Mr Mulkere.
The hearing continues on Monday before Judge Kieran O'Connor.