Details of four payments connected to Mr Charles J. Haughey, totalling almost £1.25 million, were outlined by the tribunal's legal team in its opening statement yesterday. Mr John Coughlan SC, counsel for the tribunal, said that the four payments had come to its notice in the course of its preliminary inquiries.
The first was a cheque for £282,500 sterling drawn on the account of Dunnes Stores in Bangor, Co Down, the proceeds of which reached Mr Haughey through a company called Triple Plan Ltd.
The second covered six cheque payments totalling £32,200 drawn on various accounts of Dunnes Stores on the same day.
The third covered three cheques totalling £180,000 drawn on accounts of Dunnes Stores in 1992 and subsequently converted into two cheques drawn on the account of the property company Carlisle Trust for the sums of £100,000 and £80,000. The former cheque was made out to Celtic Helicopters and the latter to cash and lodged to Kentford Securities, a company operated by the late Mr Des Traynor.
The fourth payment covered three bank drafts totalling £750,000 which were lodged into an account believed to be for Mr Haughey's benefit.
In relation to the £282,500 sterling Triple Plan Ltd cheque, the tribunal had received information from Dunnes Stores and Mr Noel Fox, an accountant and former financial adviser to Mr Ben Dunne.
The cheque was drawn by Mr Matt Price, an executive of Dunnes Stores Bangor Ltd, at the Ulster Bank in Newry on May 20th, 1987. It was sent to Mr Fox in Dublin.
Mr Coughlan said the cheque appeared to have been subsequently sent back to Newry, where value was given to it. Triple Plan Ltd did not have an account at that branch and the manner in which value was given was not entirely clear, Mr Coughlan said.
Triple Plan was a shelf company established by an English firm of company-formation agents in London on September 1st, 1983. In June 1985 it came into the ownership of two companies, Sovereign Management Ltd and College Trustees Ltd. The directors of the company on its takeover were Mr John Collins and the late Mr John Furze, both of whom were involved with Mr Traynor in connection with the Ansbacher accounts.
The proceeds of the cheque, with the exception of a £15 clearance charge, were credited to an account of Guinness & Mahon in London. It was subsequently converted to Irish pounds and transferred to a Dublin account called Amiens, which was one of a series operated by Mr Traynor.
Of the converted total of £309,220.29, £285,000 was transferred to Mr Haughey's account at Guinness & Mahon, which had been overdrawn at the time by £282,880.73. The small credit was subsequently sent back to the Amiens account and was withdrawn in cash.
Mr Coughlan said that Dunnes Stores had no trading relations with Triple Plan and no knowledge of it. He added: "It would seem Mr Price had no commercial reason to make the payment other than, of course, by being instructed to do so."
Giving evidence to the tribunal later yesterday, Mr Price said he could not recall who had asked him to send the cheque. However, he said he would normally never have sent such a cheque without confirming authorisation from Mr Dunne.
Mr Dunne had told the tribunal that he did not authorise an instruction in relation to the payment. It was not his intention that any such payment should be made or that Mr Haughey should receive the amount either by this payment or in any other way.
Mr Fox had told the tribunal he had no recollection of the cheque.
The second payment of six cheques totalling £32,200, drawn on accounts of Dunnes Stores, came to the tribunal's attention while it was examining the Amiens account. Each cheque was dated January 28th 1987 and signed by Mr Dunne.
The records of Guinness & Mahon showed that the six cheques were paid into the Amiens account in two separate lodgings. On February 2nd 1987, two £5,400 cheques and a £4,600 cheque were lodged, while on February 4th 1987 cheques valued at £6,600, £5,600 and £4,600 were lodged.
An examination of the account statement showed there were withdrawals in favour of Haughey Boland & Co immediately prior to the lodgments and in subsequent months. Haughey Boland was a firm of chartered accountants which dealt with Mr Haughey's financial affairs and has since been incorporated into Deloitte & Touche.
Mr Coughlan said information it had received suggested the proceeds of the payments may have been for Mr Haughey's benefit.
The third payment, covering three cheques totalling £180,000, dated in November 1992, was then detailed by counsel for the tribunal.
The three Dunnes Stores cheques, for £72,418, £50,962 and £49,620, were made out to cash. They were subsequently transferred into an account held by Carlisle Trust, a property company controlled by Mr John Byrne.
Mr Byrne has asserted to the tribunal that he was not aware that Mr Traynor had paid these sums into his company's account and has expressed his "dismay" that this should have been done.
