Press Statement by the Director of Corporate Enforcement
First ODCE Conviction Secured for Falsely Representing Company Financial Statements as having been audited
In Dublin District Court this afternoon, the Director of Corporate Enforcement secured his Office’s first conviction under section 243(1) of the Companies Act 1990. The section prohibits inter alia the falsification of a book or document relating to the property or affairs of a company.
Mr Gary Anderson, 5A Nun’s Cross, Ashford, Co. Wicklow, pleaded guilty to falsifying a document, namely the financial statements of Crest Interiors Ltd., a company of which he was a director and secretary, for the year ended 31 July 2003. The Court heard that Mr Anderson presented the financial statements and another document to the company’s bank for the purpose of renewing an overdraft facility. However, the documents incorrectly represented to the bank that the financial statements had been audited by Ardagh Horan Chartered Accountants, 168 Walkinstown Road, Dublin 12. The company was not a client of the audit firm, and the firm denied the authenticity of the presented documents.
Having heard the evidence, Ms Justice Anne Watkin fined Mr Anderson €500 and ordered him to pay costs of €300.
In a statement, Mr Paul Appleby, the Director of Corporate Enforcement, stated:
“This is the first occasion on which we have prosecuted this offence. We were particularly anxious in this case to uphold the integrity of audited financial statements. An auditor’s opinion provides valuable independent assurance for the public at large of the state of affairs of a company. We cannot tolerate a director representing a set of financial statements as having been audited by a recognised firm of auditors when this was not the case.
We remain anxious to widen the type of company law offences which we prosecute, and subject to existing resource constraints, we will continue to advance our enforcement efforts in 2006.”
Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement
19 January 2006