A CO CLARE Fianna Fail councillor has denied he got £400,000 by fraud while he was a senior executive at Shannon Free Airport Development Company.
Mr Enda Mulkere (46) of Carrow Na Cloughy, Crusheen, has pleaded not guilty to 17 charges of committing the fraud by false pretences on dates from October 1991 to June 1992.
A building contractor identified six cheques totalling £26,752 which he told the jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court he gave to Mr Mulkere.
Mr Jack McCarthy, a director of McCarthy Brothers of Ballybeg, said the defendant told him he needed the money to pay subcontractors due to a cash shortage at SFADCo. He said Mr Mulkere indicated the money would be repaid in due course by SFADCo.
Mr McCarthy told Mr Paul O'Higgins SC (with Mr Paul McDermott), prosecuting, he knew Mr Mulkere as a senior SFADCo executive. Mr Mulkere said he wanted the money to pay subcontractors for some refurbishing work and asked Mr McCarthy "to take them under the umbrella" of his company.
Witness said that the first of the six cheques was for £10,730 and this was repaid some three weeks or a month later.
Mr Peter Charleton SC (with Mr John Major), defending, asked Mr McCarthy, in cross examination, to explain a judgment he got against the defendant in Ennis Circuit Court on September 21st, 1992, for a total of £26,752.
Mr Charleton read, out the details of the civil bill in which Mr McCarthy claimed to the court he had loaned this money to Mr Mulkere personally.
Mr McCarthy replied he gave the money to the defendant on the basis it was for SFADCo but that after he was told by SFADCo that the money did not go for the works alleged by the defendant his company had to take some action to recover it. He had believed the money was for SFADCo.
The charges against Mr Mulkere allege he obtained sums, or caused sums or attempted to cause sums, to be paid to contractors by falsely pretending the money was due to them from SFADCo in respect of work done or services lawfully rendered.
In his direct evidence, Mr McCarthy identified cheques for £10,730, £4,453, £4,912, £1,532, £1,350 and £3,765 signed by him on various dates in 1991 and 1992 and made payable to cash at Mr Mulkere's request.
Witness said he directed his office to deduct 35 per cent for the Revenue Commissioners from the sums sought for the alleged subcontractors because Mr Mulkere told him they didn't have the necessary C2 form to show they were bona fide registered firms.
He also agreed that invoices produced to him in court for sums of £2,004 and £16,182 had been issued by his company for alleged work at Smithstown near Shannon. He said his company did not carry out any of this work.
Mr McCarthy said his first contact with the defendant was in 1991 when he was tendering for a SFADCo contract. Mr Mulkere called him to his office and said that due to the changes in government ministers at that time the job was not proceeding then.
Mr McCarthy denied having lunch with, the defendant at another time in the Greenhills Hotel in Limerick.
Outlining the case, Mr O Higgins said the State alleged Mr Mulkere deceived three sets of people as outlined in the charges. These were McCarthy Brothers, Mr Thomas Madden and his companies and SFADCo.
He said Mr Mulkere occupied a senior position in SFADCo with authority to deal, with certain works in a supervisory capacity and liaising with people who carried out the work.
Mr O'Higgins said the State would set out, to prove that Mr Mulkere deceived these groups into giving him sums of money which he then disbursed, in various ways which had nothing to do with SFADCo.
The State also alleged he defrauded SFADCo, by producing certificates, claiming work had been done in order to get cheques from the semi state company.
Some of the money in the cheques mentioned in four of the charges was for work which had in fact been carried out and therefore was legally due to be paid by SFADCo. But the rest was not genuine, said counsel. The hearing continues before Judge Kieran O'Connor and a jury.