Console's former chief executive Paul Kelly and his wife Patricia were connected to 12 companies, according to the Company Registration Office (CRO).
However, in reviewing CRO records, HSE auditors found “there were three different dates of birth for the CEO’s wife and six different signatures on company documentation”. There were also two different dates of birth given by Mr Kelly on company documentation.
Patricia Kelly was, according to relevant sworn documentation for four of the 12 companies – born on March 17th, 1967, March 25th, 1961, March 25th, 1966, and March 18th, 1961 (the correct date). Paul Kelly was born on February 18th, 1960, where sworn documents were concerned and involving two of the 12 companies, but on January 18th, 1958, for all others.
In response to queries from the auditors about the six different signatures employed by Patricia Kelly, Console responded: “The relevance of this is not understood and how this can be identified by the auditors is also not understood:
“The CEO’s [Mr Kelly] wife has confirmed that to the best of her recollection the signatures are hers. Furthermore, she had used her maiden name interchangeably throughout her marriage for various reasons. Therefore [auditor’s] assertion is disputed.”
On Patricia Kelly’s sundry dates of birth, Console told the auditors one was due to error following instruction to an agent over the phone and that “she accepts that any documentation she was presented with for signature should have been checked by her for errors. She accepts that she failed to do this but it is important to note that the errors were inadvertent and not intentional.”
Third party
Where Paul Kelly’s dates of birth were concerned, Console responded that in one instance a third party “appears to concede this was an error on their behalf. Again the CEO accepts he should review documentation submitted on his behalf more carefully. This was not an intentional mistake on the CEO’s part.”
Then there was the case of the new company Console Counselling Ltd, registered in September 2014, and whose directors were Paul Kelly and Patricia Dowling – Patricia Kelly under her maiden name.
The application to the CRO to incorporate this new company said Patricia Dowling had no other directorships. In fact, she had seven, two as Patricia Dowling Kelly. Asked about this, Console responded that it appeared "the list of the CEO's wife's other directorships was omitted in error".
At its formation, and as the new company had the name “Console” in its title, Patricia Kelly, as Patricia Kelly director of Console, wrote to the CRO saying Console had no objection to the formation of Console Counselling Ltd (of which she, as Patricia Dowling, was a registered director).
In a comment the audit report is clear: "By providing different names and different dates of birth to the CRO a person may be in breach of the Companies Act 2014 by exceeding the statutory limit on the number of directorships they may hold. It also means the CRO has no way in identifying such a breach."
It also “considers it highly unusual to use different dates of birth and different signatures (and different versions of name as noted earlier . . .) when signing statutory documents.
“This practice leads to a lack of transparency in directorships and can call into question the validity of such documents.”
Signing such statutory documents meant “confirming, inter alia, their personal information”, it said.
Four of the 12 companies with which the Kellys were connected preceded the setting up of Console. These were Interior Art Design, registered at the CRO in September 1994; Corporate Management Institute of Ireland Ltd, registered in November 1994; Human Resource Management Associates Ltd, registered in January 1998; and Aspect Recruitment Consultants Ltd, registered in October 2002. Both Kellys were registered as the two directors in each case with the same address in Celbridge, Co Kildare, except for the Corporate Management Institute of Ireland Ltd, where the registration form gave a Lucan address for the Kellys.
The first two companies listed above were dissolved in 1999, with Human Resource Management Associates Ltd dissolved in May 2005 and Aspect Recruitment Consultants Ltd, which was not dissolved until February 2011 as it overlapped with Console.
Registered
Console Suicide Bereavement Counselling Ltd was registered with the CRO on December 6th 2006. In this instance the Kellys gave their address in Celbridge as that of the company and as their own, as directors.
The CRO form also disclosed that the new company had “six other directors from December 2009 to March 2011 and four to April 2014.”
In June 2009, 1 Life Suicide Prevention Ltd was registered, with Paul Kelly as director whose address is given as Clane, Co Kildare. According to the CRO form, he resigned as director in May 2014 as did one other unrelated director.
However, in January 2011 he and his wife registered the Alexandra College of Higher Education Ltd giving the Celbridge address as both theirs and that of the company.
In March 2011, Rise Foundation Supporting Families was set up with an address in Belfast and Paul Kelly as director, "also company secretary plus four other unrelated directors".
In this instance, the Belfast address was given as that of the directors.
Later that year also, in December 2011, Mental Health Reform was registered with "Paul Kelly and seven other unrelated directors" whose address was given as the Kelly's Celbridge one.
Console Suicide Prevention Ltd was registered in May 2012 with directors "Patricia Kelly, Paul Kelly, Tim Kelly and one other unrelated director". The directors' address in this case also is the familiar Celbridge one but the "St Vincent's Centre, Carlisle Place, London" is given as another.
In March 2013, 1Life Preventing Suicide Ltd, (not to be confused with 1Life Suicide Prevention Ltd, registered in June 2009), was registered with the CRO, with Paul Kelly and "three other unrelated directors", and giving Clane as the directors' address.
Then there was Console Counselling Ltd, registered in September 2014, with Paul Kelly and his wife Patricia Dowling (using her maiden name) as directors and giving the Clane address.
