
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
ocial 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 ocial 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
ocials and Sinéad McNamara using her
personal computer, and released under FOI to
Sheils in 2020, shows details of correspondence
between her and identified ocials 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 ocials 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