Console audit reveals remarkable details of spending by ‘nun’

More than half of total credit card spending by the suicide charity Console's former chief executive Paul Kelly between 2012 and 2014 was in the name of a nun, a former employee, who had not worked for the charity since 2009.

Mr Kelly spent €252,254.62 on credit cards over the three years, €128,168.53 of which was in the name of the nun. The credit card in her name was in fact upgraded from a business to premier card in 2013.

According to draft HSE audit findings, a copy of which has been seen by The Irish Times, the named nun made cash withdrawals of €28,785 over the three-year period, 70 in 2013 and 66 in 2014, as well as spending €13,209 on travel, €4,053 on restaurants, €2,956 on hotels, €2,604 on shops, €1,244 on clothes.

There was also spending of €2,556 on maintenance, €19,426 on utility bills, and €2,797 went to the Revenue Commissioners. She also paid €4,437 on petrol, yet only €745 on her car.

There is of course her rather unusual spending on “ads/ promotion”, as it is described in the audit, which came to a remarkable €17,802 over the three years.

Most remarkable of all though was the massive increase in her spending between 2012, when it totalled €8,827, and 2013 when it rose to well over six times that at €59,882. Her spending in 2014 came to €59,450.

Travelled widely

But it becomes more intriguing. According to the audit this nun travelled very widely indeed. She made cash withdrawals in

Abu Dhabi

, Perth in

Australia

, and “Playa de Las” in

Spain

. She also made three purchases at the duty free in

Dubai

and two at London’s Gatwick airport, as well as at Pure Pharmacy in Dublin Airport.

She also liked high-end clothes, spending €114.70 in Topshop and €299.80 at Best Menswear.

Noting, as the internal audit puts it, “that the expenditure on this credit card contained very similar expenditure to the chief executive’s [Mr Kelly] credit card” it asked Mr Kelly about the identity of the nun on June 17th, 2015.

The following day he responded that the audit team had themselves met the nun at a Console centre already. The audit team did indeed recall meeting a nun at the centre referred to, a different nun. They called to the centre again on July 18th, 2015, and asked after the “credit card” nun.

They were told she had “left Console approximately six years previously” and that the nun they had in fact met “never held a Console Visa card”. She confirmed this to them.

That was at 2pm on the day. At 3pm the audit team received a call from Mr Kelly explaining they had misunderstood. The nun they had spoken to indeed never had a Console credit card.

When he was told by the audit team that two staff at the centre said the credit card nun no longer worked for Console, he agreed. Asked whether she had left Console approximately six years previously, he said “yes, that could be correct and I will get back to you with the date”. It was never provided.

"After much questioning," the audit said, Mr Kelly "stated that he used the card and "another board member/ voluntary worker" used the card and that all expenses related to this card were approved by him so there was no issue with the card. He also stated the credit card was held in a locked filing cabinet in the office at Celbridge Unit, Co Kildare. "

Unusual items

Among the unusual items paid for on the nun’s credit card was €560 for dental treatment. Elsewhere in the audit it is reported that this involved two visits to the dentist, on July 8th and September 9th, 2013, at costs, respectively, of €480 and €80 each.

These dental visits are book-ended by visits to the same dentist by Mr Kelly. As the audit puts it “dental costs totalling €1,340 were paid through two of Console’s credit cards. Both of the cards were used by the CEO [Mr Kelly]”.

He visited the dentist seven times between February 2013 and December 2014. When asked about an initial €50 visit to the dentist he told the audit he’d get back to them with an explanation. He did. Some time later he told them he had to have dental repair after an incident between a client and staff member in Tralee when, standing between them, he received a punch from the client.

It was “just one of those things” and no report was filed on it. No explanation was offered for the other six dental visits, one of which cost €520.

In a later response from Console, dated December 7th, 2015, the explanation for this €1,340 dental bill changed. It now arose from an assault at the Console Limerick centre “by an intoxicated homeless man”. The charity provided an incident report on this, signed by Mr Kelly and dated February 5th, 2013.

Separately, the audit found that on January 23rd, 2012, a motoring fine of €80 was paid on Mr Kelly’s credit card. When this was questioned by the audit team Mr Kelly said: “€80. Payment for a motoring fine while attending a critical incident of suicide.” The audit report noted that “there was no documentation available to internal audit to support the CEO’s assertion.”

The audit also found that €3,416.30 was paid for by Console credit cards on 50 separate transactions involving flowers over 2012, 2013 and 2014.

No documentation was available to support these transactions.

In an explanation for just 15 of the transactions the charity said flowers were provided to various fundraisers.