Businessman convicted of forging company accounts
The first court conviction for forging company accounts was today secured by the state’s corporate watchdog.
Wicklow businessman Gary Anderson pleaded guilty to the charge at Dublin District Court and was fined €500 and ordered to pay €300 costs.
Lawyers for the Director of Corporate Enforcement Paul Appleby prosecuted the case under section 243(1) of the Companies Act 1990.
Mr Anderson of Nun’s Cross in Ashford admitted falsifying 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 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 stated that the financial statements had been audited by Ardagh Horan Chartered Accountants in Walkinstown, Dublin.
However Crest Interiors was not a client of the auditors who denied the authenticity of the documents.
After hearing the evidence, Ms Justice Anne Watkin fined Mr Anderson €500 and ordered him to pay costs of €300.
Mr Appleby said the first-ever prosecution of this offence upheld the integrity of audited financial statements.
He added: “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.”
