PB May-June 2023 May-June 2023 9
McNamara gave evidence in his defence.
In his report, Marry explains how, in July
2008, ODonoghue registered PSPH Contracts
Ltd at Garballagh, Duleek, County Meath, the
address of P Sheils Plant Hire and the home
address of his then employer, Paddy Sheils. Mr
Sheils was unaware of, and did not authorise,
the use of his address and his business phone
number by O’Donoghue and McNamara who
then issued invoices and obtained payments
from MCC for work carried out by P Sheils Plant
Hire Ltd, the report states.
O’Donoghue and McNamara changed the
name of the company from PSPH Contracts Ltd.
to Phoenix Civil Engineering Ltd. before they
left the employment of P Sheils Plant Hire in
2009 and secured valuable contracts from the
Council until their company was dissolved in
2021.
Council ocials, as described previously in
Village and in the Marry report, assisted with
the setting up of Phoenix Civil Engineering on
the MCC purchasing order system in order to
facilitate payments to the newly named entity.
In his report, obtained by Village Magazine,
Marry states:
“PSPH Contracts Ltd. moved in on Meath
County Council in particular and unfortunately
successfully managed to pass itself o as one
of Pat Sheils’ companies. Meath County Council,
however, does not appear to have followed best
practice in terms of protocols and procedures in
accounting and invoicing. Meath County Council
seem to have taken a very relaxed approach
when it came to changing the payment method
from EFT to cheque, especially when P. Sheils
Plant Hire were appointed a government
contractor following a tendering process and
they were being paid with public monies.
Meath County Council has refused to refund
P Sheils Plant Hire Ltd. for the work it carried
out under contract but for which it has not been
paid due to the issuing of the fraudulent
invoices”.
During a Garda investigation carried out by
now retired Sergeant Mark Tobin, of Slane
Garda station, MCC confirmed that it had made
the payments to PSPH Contracts Ltd. on the
basis that it, and not P Sheils Plant Hire, had
carried out the work. However, in another
written statement, a senior Council ocial
claimed that PSPH Contracts Ltd was a part of
the P Sheils group of companies.
The fraud involved the re-direction of cheque
payments by MCC, based on false invoices, to
McNamara who lodged them to a bank account
controlled by David O’Donoghue during a time
when they were both employed by Paddy
Sheils. Ryan pleaded guilty to cheque fraud on
her employer. According to Marry, “the role of
MCC in this fraud is quite unbelievable. They
were also duped and conned by the three
former employees of P Shiels Plant Hire but
same initials, address and phone number as P
Sheils Plant Hire and was set up by employees
of the company owned by Paddy Sheils.
Three now-former employees, Sinéad
McNamara, David O’Donoghue and Siobhán
Ryan were charged with fraud-related oences
following an investigation by the Garda which
commenced in late 2009. Ms Ryan pleaded
guilty in the District Court to charges relating
to money and cheques obtained by fraud from
P Sheils Plant Hire and received a suspended
sentence and a €20,000 fine. The charges
against Sinéad McNamara were withdrawn on
the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions
while Mr O’Donoghue was acquitted by a jury
in the Circuit Court during a trial in which
M
eath County Council (MCC)
breached its own “accounting,
invoicing and procurement
policies” when it paid out
monies to a company for work
which the firm did not, in fact, carry out.
According to a recent investigation
commissioned by County Meath contractor and
businessman, Paddy Sheils, MCC also failed to
alert An Garda to a fraud in which it paid out
large sums of public monies to a company
which had not carried out works for which it
invoiced the local authority in 2008 and 2009.
The investigation, carried out by former
garda detective inspector and senior
investigator, Pat Marry, concluded that Paddy
Sheils was not paid for work carried out by his
company, P Sheils Plant Hire Ltd (PSPH Ltd) for
the Council. Instead, the finance department of
MCC authorised payments to another, ‘cloned
entity, PSPH Contracts Ltd., which used the
On 21 February two senior Council officials
met Marry and Sheils to discuss the findings
of the report, including that the Council had
made payments to a company for jobs that
it had not carried out and withheld payments
due to P Sheils Plant Hire for work that it had
carried out on foot of successful tenders
NEWS
Meath Council fraud
nailed in new report
Finance department
of MCC authorised
payments to another,
cloned’ entity but it
denies former garda’s
report yielded new
evidence
By Frank Connolly
Ptrick Sheils
10 May-June 2023 May-June 2023 PB
their response to the evidence which was put
clearly before them is astonishing.
He said that the Council had not co-operated
fully with the garda investigation into the fraud
despite its insistence that it had done so.
“During the criminal investigations carried
out by Sergeant Mark Tobin of Slane Garda
station he found MCC to be ‘less than
co-operative’.
Sergeant Tobin received an email from Mr
Eamon Lynch of MCC in which the council
ocial stated that he had ‘to protect the vested
interest of MCC’ which seems to have become
the default position of MCC in this aair, Marry
said.
He said the position was “all the more
ridiculous” as MCC subsequently instructed
solicitors acting for Sheils that it believed that
PSPH/Phoenix were part of the P Shiels group
of companies.
“It is also important to point out that some
of the invoices relate to a period when
O’Donoghue, Ryan and McNamara were still in
the employment of P Shiels Plant Hire Limited
and to the best of our information and
knowledge they did not possess the equipment
necessary to carry out these works at that time.
The theft and fraud have had a devastating
impact on the business of P Shiels Plant Hire
and on Mr Paddy Shiels personally. The loss of
money and machinery despite being very
serious are things that can be overcome but the
damage to the name and goodwill of the
business and to the strong trusting working
relationships built up over many years can
never be undone”.
In his report, Marry questioned the manner
in which PSPH/Phoenix Engineering was set up
on the purchasing-order system by the finance
department of MCC. He said Council sta
should have queried why Sinéad McNamara
sought to change the method of payment to the
cloned entity, PSPH Contracts Ltd. from the
normal bank-transfer arrangement to cheque.
He also queried why the Council did not ask
Paddy Sheils about this sudden change in
payment arrangements, which only applied to
cheques made out to the bogus company.
“Did the Council not question why a long-
standing proven record of payment suddenly
changed to Sinéad McNamara looking for
cheque payment? Who authorised this change
of payment?”, asked Marry.
He said the Council should also have raised
questions when McNamara informed it by
email of the change of the company name from
PSPH Contracts Ltd. to Phoenix Civil
Engineering Ltd. in June 2009 after she had left
the employment of Paddy Sheils.
In her email of 2 June, 2009 to MCC,
McNamara said: “Please find attached
certificate of incorporation confirming formal
name change to Phoenix Civil Engineering
limited. We will no longer be able to accept
cheque payment to PSPH Contracts Limited. We
would be most grateful if you could amend your
files accordingly and if required inform County
hall of the change”.
The Council sta made the change without
conducting any basic investigation into the
legitimacy or otherwise of Phoenix Engineering
or its connection or otherwise to P Sheils Plant
Hire, said Marry. In June 2010, after the fraud
was discovered by Sheils, the Council informed
his solicitors that it believed that Phoenix
Engineering was part of the P Sheils group of
companies.
This is a case where a Council ocial made
a name change apparently in error. He had no
right or authority to instruct Council sta to
change PSPH to Phoenix Civil Engineering”,
Marry said.
MCC, he said, was in breach of its own
procurement policies and of its requirement
that a purchasing order must be submitted by
any company before works are carried out by a
contractor.
As previously revealed in Village, an
extensive exchange of emails between Council
ocials and Sinéad McNamara using her
personal computer, and released under FOI to
Sheils in 2020, shows details of correspondence
between her and identified ocials of the
Council, during 2008 and 2009. In the
correspondence, McNamara sought and
obtained assistance with the setting up of a
purchasing order on the financial management
system of the local authority.
Sheils has insisted that Meath County
Council and/or persons in Meath County
Council facilitated PSPH Contracts Ltd. and
Phoenix Civil Engineering with regard to
payments and tenders that should properly
have gone to his company.
On 21 February last, Martin Murray and Dara
McGowan, two senior Council ocials and
directors of services at MCC, met Marry and
Sheils to discuss the findings of the report,
including that the Council had made payments
to a company for jobs that it had not carried out.
Further, Marry asked why the Council had
withheld payments due to P Sheils Plant Hire
for work that it had carried out pursuant to
successful and legitimate tenders.
On 2 March, the Council informed Sheils that
it had reviewed the contents of the report by
Marry Investigations Ltd relating “to the
alleged non-payment by Meath County Council
of invoices Mr Patrick Sheils had submitted for
work carried out for the Council as a contractor
over a period of time”.
In a letter, Mr McGowan said that following a
review of the report “and of the related Council
files, the Council is of the view that there was
no new evidence submitted to support the
allegations and as a result no further action will
be taken”.
MCC, the investigator said,
was in breach of its own
procurement policies and
of its requirement that a
purchasing order must be
submitted by any company
before works are carried out
by a contractor

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