A son in a small family-run furniture delivery and assembly business has caused “deep divisions” by allegedly making hundreds of thousands of euros in unauthorised payments to himself and others, it has been claimed in the High Court.
Christopher Kane junior was until January 8th last a director of the company, RLC Transport, based at Eden Grove in Donabate, Co Dublin.
RLC, which had an average turnover of €1.7 million a year since 2018 and until recently employed 30 people, provides services to firms like Harvey Norman, the 1993 Furniture Company and Frank McGowan Furniture.
Christopher’s father, Christopher senior, is a director as is his sister Jacqueline who is also 100pc shareholder.
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On Thursday, Ms Justice Siobhán Stack granted Joe Jeffers SC, for RLC, permission to serve injunction proceedings at short notice on Christopher jnr, on a rival company he set up and on a former RLC employee.
The injunctions seek to prevent the defendants from interfering with RLC’s trade. The application was made on a one-side-only represented basis.
Jacqueline Kane said in an affidavit seeking the injunctions that last September an investigation was commenced after the Kanes’ mother, while shopping for groceries, discovered her director’s salary had not been paid and she had no money in her bank account.
Ms Kane said her mother, who was extremely concerned and distressed by this, asked Christopher jnr why it had happened and said she was told she would no longer be getting paid because the company had no money to do so.
When Ms Kane sought to speak to her brother about it, she said he refused to co-operate with the investigation and “actively hindered it”.
An investigation by a forensic accountant revealed Christopher jnr had made some €180,600 in payments to his pension, had drawn cheques for some €189,700 on the company account in favour of himself and paid another €80,000 to his (Christopher jnr’s) wife, Naomi O’Neill, who was allegedly never employed by the company.
There were also allegedly other unauthorised overpayments in salary to Christopher jnr, which have yet to be ascertained, directors loan payments and payments to the rival company he set up called Onekan Holdings Ltd t/a CK Transport.
Ms Kane said these were unauthorised payments. With the assistance of former RLC book-keeper, Ashley Whitehead, Westbrook Close, Naul Road, Balbriggan, who is the third defendant, Christopher wrongfully diverted RLC clients to his rival company, she said.
She also claimed that Christopher and Ashley Whitehead have taken company data, including client lists, and have used RLC’s website, email addresses and social media accounts to wrongfully divert customers to the rival firm.
Christopher, she said, has sole knowledge of certain passwords which are required to enable the company access and control its data. He also has spare keys and registration documents of vehicles owned by the firm, she said.
Ms Kane said she, her parents and another brother Derek who is not involved in the company, met Christopher jnr the day after his dismissal last January. She said he did not deny he had caused certain payments to be made although he did say the €80,000 to his wife was done “to keep myself out of a higher tax bracket”.
Ms Kane said the alleged wrongful conduct of her brother has had a seriously detrimental effect on the company and caused deep divisions within the family. The firm’s largest client, Harvey Norman, has indicated it intends to terminate its arrangement because of recent events, she said.
As a consequence of what has happened the company has been forced to temporarily cease trading and has had to lay off all but one of its staff.
It also owes €61,448 to Revenue as a result of which, on February 29th, the Dublin Co Sheriff’s office seized six company vehicles to sell them to realise funds to meet the debt.
Ms Justice Stack also granted the company a non-destruction order requiring the defendants to preserve all documents and data belonging to the company. The case returns next week.
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