Console. Charity, Irish-style

take everything

Console founder, Paul Kelly and his family ran up nearly 500k on charity's credit card bill over 3 years.
Shocking.
Can anyone post the Irish Times link

Boom_Bap

the Irish Times link

snubbleste

Isn't this normal?

Boom_Bap

asides from me being a messer, it's a disgrace what him and his family got away with.

NiallBoo

*Irish-shtyle

smash

take everything wrote: »

Console founder, Paul Kelly and his family ran up nearly 500k on charity's credit card bill over 3 years.

That's a lot of Eastern European prostitutes...

Buona Fortuna

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/console-founder-ran-up-500-000-in-credit-card-bills-1.2703334

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0629/798928-console/

It is a bit of a sickener.

biko

Irish Examiner link
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/audit-finds-console-ceo-paul-kelly-wife-and-son-benefited-from-salaries-and-cars-407472.html

Winterlong

Are there criminal charges pending?
I mean, stealing from your employer is illegal - right? RIGHT???

Boom_Bap

Winterlong wrote: »

Are there criminal charges pending?
I mean, stealing from your employer is illegal - right? RIGHT???

It' OK, he's stepped down.

Rakish Paddy

Nothing new, unfortunately. Paul Kiely helped himself to a load of money (i.e., stole) from donations to the Central Remedial Clinic, and as far as I know he scarpered to the UK or somewhere and never paid it back or did any jail time.

Angela Kerins and her cronies in Rehab also had their snouts in the trough and managed to misappropriate donated funds to enrich themselves.

If you want to get rich in Ireland, start/take over a charity. Even if you get caught, chances are you'll get to keep the money and face no consquences. :-/

Is it possible to have CAB target these guys and seize everything they own?

The Backwards Man

I'd always be one that would have a more hands on approach to charity, would rather do something that can be physically seen rather than donate untraceable money. That's why I think the counselors that were doing great work must be absolutely devastated.

Ciaran_B

Anyone giving to charity ,after the revelations last summer about the wages they pay themselves, is a sucker. 200+ suicide prevention charities in Ireland alone - absolute joke.

Of course the state is writing this shower their biggest cheque.

Sapphire

Boom_Bap wrote: »

It' OK, he's stepped down.

He then stated he didn't resign after all. But you are right. A resignation and a transfer to the board of another cushy number is the standard punishment I believe.

Apart from the tax dodging. With luck the Revenue will haul their arses to prison for that. And seize their assets too.

Sapphire

From RTE webiste:

The audit reveals details of how Mr Kelly, his wife Patricia and their son Tim benefitted by almost €491,649 in salaries and cars between 2012 and 2014.
A further €464,777 was spent by the three Kellys during that period on Console credit cards for items including groceries, designer clothes and foreign trips.
Between them Paul, Patricia and Tim Kelly used 11 credit cards over the three-year period.
The cards were used for large cash withdrawals, trips to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other destinations, designer clothing in outlets such as Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss, dining out, Rugby World Cup tickets and dental work.
The programme has already revealed evidence of serious concerns around the handling of Console's finances, inappropriate payments to directors, the use of multiple sets of accounts with alterations and deletions sent to different bodies.

cruizer101

Not only did they steal a massive amount they also reduced the service they were providing from 6 to 2 phone lines. Pure and utter scum, would love to see them do jail time.

The One Doctor

Charities have very little regulation in Ireland. They're allegedly a common front for people wanting to make money without spending money. Charities are required to give a minimum of 5% of their income to the cause they represent. Most of the other 95% gets sucked up as 'administration costs'.

The Console guy is not alone, this is a regular occurrence. People need to realise that a large percentage of charities are simply scams to make the generous part with their cash. This has been going on for many, many years. A classic example is Barnardo's - the original founder actually kidnapped children, tore their clothes a bit and took photos of the supposed tattered orphans. He then made them work in his workhouses and when they outlived their child labour abilities, he sold them as farm labour to Canada.

The above is a matter of public record, by the way.

Foreign aid charities are little better - unable to physically give money to the people who need it most, they give it to the governments of the countries experiencing the crisis. The governments then spend it on Bollinger and attack jets.

Another example was Bob Geldof's dreadful use of the Live Aid money. He bought the supplies from the US, but could have bought double the supplies from an African country for the same money.

Tombo2001

You would wonder at what point the state is saying 'enough is enough' with the charity sector.

This sector gets 2bn a year from the state, and 3bn a year from donations. On the one side.

On the other side, it is tapping into people working voluntarily for a huge range of roles.

There doesn't seem to be a minister responsible for charities - it falls within the Justice remit, and it cant be a big focus within that. There needs to be someone at the top taking the heat for this.

Ronald Wilson Reagan

This is nothing new for the Irish state when it comes to social services. Previously hands were washed of such matters which where handed over to the church with no oversight, resulting in gross abuses. The same thing is being done today, just its the private sector rather than the church. Some charities seem to be run like private fiefdoms for the benefit of their founders.

Surely it would be more cost effective for the HSE to provide these services directly rather than funding the dubious or downright spurious motives of odious middle men.

maudgonner

There's a thread discussing the Prime Time programme over on the TV forum.

This guy was done for impersonating a doctor in the 80s. For a month. He passed himself off as a doctor in a Casualty department for a month, faked references and all. So it's not surprising that he's comfortable scamming the system.

But for all the people who have lost someone to suicide, for all those who have felt suicidal and haven't had access to the support they need, and for all those working in the system and raising funds for it, what a sickener this must be. What an insult.

Winterlong

Angela Kearns could apply for the vacancy at Console.

IrishAlice

I thought that nothing related to charities could shock me after all of the revelations relating to Rehab and other charities last year but this is just atrocious.

The family were all paid salaries from the charity on which no income tax was paid, they took extravagant holidays paid for with charity credit cards, the CEO's wife racked up 30k of phone bills over a 3 year period and is driving around in a 2010 audi Q5 funded by the charity!

Where was she ringing to rack up a 30k bill? The moon?!?

They took thousands upon thousands out in cash withdrawals for which there is no paper trail so God only knows what that money was spent on!

I feel so sorry for all of the volunteers who have put so much into this charity and for the people who are struggling and needed a charity like this to be there for them in their time of need. It makes me sick.

septictank

Joe Duffy has it on at the moment.

andekwarhola

Thank god know embezzlement is only limited to Ireland. Was getting worried there.

maudgonner

From what I heard on the radio this morning, there was also no defined system for logging donations. You would imagine that donations would be recorded and lodged straight into the charity's account. Not so, it seems. So who knows how much of the money donated to Console even made it into their bank account.

Fair play to the Prime Time Investigates team for exposing this. RTE may waste a lot of money, but every so often they do something like this that puts the license fee to good use.

Panda

This is infuriating. The whole shower of ****s on Consoles board should be investigated.

Paul Kelly

Patricia Kelly

Tim Kelly shaking hands with the president.

His sister Joan McKenna who has also stepped down.

Why stop there? Margaret Tierney is apparently still Consoles "Director of Business Development". She can be seen in many photos happily taking large cheques from people so she was hardly blind to all this credit card fraud and excess.

Winterlong

Between this and the Rehab scandal last year I would bet that most irish charities are seeing a drop off in donations. And it will only get worse.

RobertKK

Unfortunately a lot of the people at the top of charities and human rights organisations see themselves as a charity case. A lot on six figure salaries and when questioned about it they say it is the going rate or if they were to hire someone from the professional world they would be paid more.

mzungu

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/console-founder-ran-up-500-000-in-credit-card-bills-1.2703334

The founder of suicide prevention charity Console, his wife and son ran up credit card bills of almost €500,000 on items such as groceries, designer clothes and foreign trips over a three-year period, according to a HSE audit.
Paul Kelly, his wife Patricia and their son Tim, benefitted by almost €500,000 in salaries and cars over the period from 2012 to 2014, the audit has also established.

Amongst the items the credit cards were used for, were large unvouched cash withdrawals, trips to Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other destinations, designer clothing in outlets such as Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss, dining out, rugby world cup tickets and dental work.

Not an ounce of shame :mad:

I feel sorry for the frontline staff at the charity who give their heart and soul to it. This must be quite insulting for them.

donegaLroad

RobertKK wrote: »

Unfortunately a lot of the people at the top of charities and human rights organisations see themselves as a charity case. A lot on six figure salaries and when questioned about it they say it is the going rate or if they were to hire someone from the professional world they would be paid more.

yes and they go on with this bolloxology of 'oh, the remuneration is high so as to attract the right talent'.

waraf

The One Doctor wrote: »

Charities have very little regulation in Ireland. They're allegedly a common front for people wanting to make money without spending money. Charities are required to give a minimum of 5% of their income to the cause they represent. Most of the other 95% gets sucked up as 'administration costs'.

The Console guy is not alone, this is a regular occurrence. People need to realise that a large percentage of charities are simply scams to make the generous part with their cash. This has been going on for many, many years. A classic example is Barnardo's - the original founder actually kidnapped children, tore their clothes a bit and took photos of the supposed tattered orphans. He then made them work in his workhouses and when they outlived their child labour abilities, he sold them as farm labour to Canada.

The above is a matter of public record, by the way.

Foreign aid charities are little better - unable to physically give money to the people who need it most, they give it to the governments of the countries experiencing the crisis. The governments then spend it on Bollinger and attack jets.

Another example was Bob Geldof's dreadful use of the Live Aid money. He bought the supplies from the US, but could have bought double the supplies from an African country for the same money.

Wow that's a cynical post. I would strongly disagree with the following statements:

"Most of the other 95% gets sucked up as 'administration costs'."

and

"Foreign aid charities....give it to the governments of the countries experiencing the crisis. The governments then spend it on Bollinger and attack jets."

Check out how a properly run charity like Concern conduct themselves. Transparent publicly available accounts and a CEO on less than 100k per year. (and before people start whinging about a salary of 100k for a CEO, you can't expect to attract a decent CEO of a multinational organisation for the average industrial wage)