A senior Fianna Fáil TD has claimed mobile phone expenses using bogus invoices, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Former junior minister Ned O’Keeffe submitted three invoiced claims totalling €2,237.53 between 2006 and 2009.
However none of the receipts filed under the TD Direct Purchase Scheme feature an invoice number, all appear to have the wrong VAT rate – and the garage’s own accounts department say that the Cork TD’s account shows no record of a transaction in September 2009 for which he claimed €737 from the Oireachtas.
Mr O’Keeffe was paid the money by the Oireachtas Commission under the TD Direct Purchase Scheme (DPS) for mobile phones, the scheme at the centre of the Seanad’s investigation into Ivor Callely’s controversial mobile-phone claims.
Mr O’Keeffe’s three claims were submitted on the headed notepaper of TR Motor Services Ltd, a car dealership based in Harold’s Cross in Dublin. The firm’s boss, Ronald Moloney, insists the invoices are all genuine, while Mr O’Keeffe said that his claims were legitimate and that the invoices were simply what he had been given by the dealership.
However our investigation has revealed that:
- None of the receipts displays an invoice number, even though the company’s accounts department has confirmed in all cases there should be such a number.
- The invoices use an incorrect VAT rate for goods and labour.
- One of the receipts bills €300 in labour charges, even though no labour is required to install the Bluetooth kit described.
- Just one of the invoices displays the firm’s VAT number.
- The garage’s own accounts department told an undercover MoS reporter that Mr O’Keeffe’s account with the firm shows no record of a transaction for €737 in September 2009 – even though that is what is claimed on one of his invoices.
When contacted by the MoS, Mr O’Keeffe maintained he had done nothing wrong. Insisting he had received the receipts from the company, he said: ‘I got the receipts free and fair.’
The documents came to light following a Freedom of Information request for phone receipts following MoS revelations in August that Mr Callely used forged invoices to claim almost €3,000 in phone expenses.
Mr O’Keeffe submitted the three TR Motors invoices between 2006 and 2009. The first was dated February 14, 2004, but was not submitted until September 11, 2006. It was for €681, including 13.5pc Vat, to ‘supply and fit’ a €310 Nokia handset and €290 Nokia car kit.
Another invoice from the same firm was dated March 12, 2008, but was not submitted to the Oireachtas until February 3, 2009. It stated: ‘To supply Nokia car kit.’ The invoice included €249.87 for a phone ‘cradle’ and a labour cost of €253.21. The total sum of €571 included Vat at 13.5pc.
The final invoice was dated 28 September 2009 and came to a total of €737.53. The invoice, which gave a car chassis and registration number, listed under ‘parts’ a €319.81 ‘Bluetooth cradle’. Under ‘labour’ the receipt listed ‘fit Bluetooth phone system’, costing €330. As with the others, there was a 13.5pc VAT charge.
The MoS contacted three separate car dealers, quoting the chassis number of the car that Mr O’Keeffe had submitted. All three dealers independently identified the car as metallic red Mercedes E200, confirmed that the car was prewired for the Bluetooth kit on the 2009 invoice and that no labour costs would have been applicable for its installation.
When an MoS reporter rang TR Motors on Friday inquiring about fitting such a device, an employee confirmed that there was no charge for installing the kit on a prewired car. When asked if a labour fee would apply, he replied: ‘No, it would be quick enough to pop in.’
Car dealers contacted by the MoS also said that the VAT payments on the invoices were not calculated correctly. According to the Revenue Commissioners website, the supply and fitting of accessories such as carphones should be charged at the standard VAT rate of 21pc, not 13.5pc.
The MoS investigation also found that two of the invoices do not give the company’s VAT number, and none of the invoices contain an invoice number.
Nevertheless, this weekend TR Motors boss Mr Moloney insisted that all the invoices were legitimate. He said he could produce scores of other examples of invoices that did not have an invoice number on them. He also insisted that the correct rate of VAT had been applied.
But when the MoS contacted the accounts department of TR Motors this week, an employee confirmed that all invoices generated by the company for services should have an invoice number beginning with 7.
When asked about the September 2009 invoice for €737, the accounts manager told an undercover reporter that no such transaction was in evidence on Mr O’Keeffe’s account with the firm. He said: ‘There’s no amount of €737.53,’ before adding that an invoice for €789.89 had been issued in ‘June ’09. That invoice was paid in July. There’s no €737.’
Pressed about that payment, he insisted it could not have been made, saying: ‘Well, if you can find a cheque payable to TR Motors and it’s cashed, then, there’ll be problems.’
Mr Moloney explained this discrepancy by saying that the person concerned had made a mistake and that the company had recently switched to a new accounts system.
All the invoices supplied by Mr O’Keeffe are printed on similar paper and are stamped ‘paid with thanks’. The 2008 and 2009 receipts contain a signature, although the 2006 document does not.
Published in the Irish Mail on Sunday 16 October 2010
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1321241/FF-TDs-bogus-phone-claims-Former-minister-received-expenses-foot-irregular-receipts.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#ixzz138RMVq00
