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)

PARlance

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.

Whatever about those incidences, this is a whole different level. This is pure and utter fraud. How the HSE continued to keep funding them throughout the years, despite having reservations about the governance, is a joke. They keep funding them because sometimes it just easier to outscource something as trivial as mental health services.

ohnonotgmail

donegaLroad wrote: »

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

yeah that worked out well for Rehab and Console.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

donegaLroad wrote: »

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

I've scraped more talent off the bottom of my shoe than this whole family put together. Shower of absolute ****.

RobertKK

You know these foreign trips to raise money, like a trek to Machu Picchu which one Irish charity are having, do the organisers pay for their own trip or does it come from their own funds?

I suspect these are free trips for the organisers.

MilesMorales1

RobertKK wrote: »

You know these foreign trips to raise money, like a trek to Machu Picchu which one Irish charity are having, do the organisers pay for their own trip or does it come from their own funds?

I suspect these are free trips for the organisers.

It's free trips for the organisers, obviously.


There is a reason why I don't give to many charities, all these CEO's and thieving scumbags can go **** themselves. I have a standing order to the SVP but it'll probably be them next.

Geuze

Don't forget the hepatitis C charity known as Positive Action.


http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/gardai-probe-alleged-fraud-in-hep-c-charity-30688992.html


"A damning audit report on the finances of Positive Action, which was recently completed by the HSE, criticised the organisation, which at one point got €600,000 in funding over four years, which it spent in part on expensive restaurant meals, pampering weekends in hotels, alternative therapies and a dog kennel."


http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/dpp-to-consider-criminal-charges-in-wake-of-alleged-positive-action-fraud-1.2037645

Sapphire

It happens at every level of charities. On that my mother was briefly involved in fundraising for, the woman who runs it locally was encouraging her to submit inflated expenses for certain things she helped sort out for them. She got disillusioned at the way the organiser would book herself the deluxe suite of a hotel on trips away or expense pricey meals so she left in the end.

whiskeyman

donegaLroad wrote: »

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

In fairness, there's a HUGE difference to high remuneration of charity staff and what these cowboys in Console got up to.

I fully believe that you may need to pay well to get the best staff for the benefit of the charity and thus the people who need it.
If a charity isn't run like a proper business, it's going to fail.

osarusan

Been reading through this all day on here and elsewhere and it's sickening, f**king sickening.

It's far from the first time either - has there not been any attempt to increase scrutiny on how these charities operate in recent years?

gctest50

Sapphire wrote: »

It happens at every level of charities. On that my mother was briefly involved in fundraising for, the woman who runs it locally was encouraging her to submit inflated expenses for certain things she helped sort out for them. She got disillusioned at the way the organiser would book herself the deluxe suite of a hotel on trips away or expense pricey meals so she left in the end.

There may have been another side to that too - there might be a very special discount when she went to any of those places at other times (paying out of her own pocket )

Moo Moo Land

Ireland, the country of zero accountability.

whiskeyman

Moo Moo Land wrote: »

Ireland, the country of zero accountability.

Says who?





Ah... who cares...

CrabRevolution

I'm always suspicious of the sheer number of charities out there for the same cause. I realise there probably isn't a one size fits all approach to problems, but at least a rough umbrella charity should be put in place.

For example there seems to be dozens of homeless and depression/suicide charities. These topics are high in the public's order of sympathy, so are likely to get huge amounts of donations. There really is no need for such duplication. All it results in is huge waste as you've dozens of CEOs on huge salaries, dozens of executive boards etc.

There should be some consolidation between most of them. This article says there's at least 75 homeless organisations operating in the state:

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/charities-for-homeless-are-not-value-for-money-report-34349696.html

I'd say there's a similar number of mental health and suicide agencies too. Aware, Pieta House, Suicide or Survive, Jigsaw, Samaritans, Console, Shine etc.

I'm sure most of the people working in these charities mean well, but having so many organisations aiming for the same end goal increases the likelihood of the embezzlement and theft happening.

Stig Inge

That doctor stunt is up there Frank Abagnale jr . What a sociopath

maudgonner

Moo Moo Land wrote: »

Ireland, the country of zero accountability.

I have hope that the Revenue Commissioners will come down on them like a ton of bricks.

I have very little faith that we'll see reform in the charity sector though, if it didn't happen after Rehab why would this be any different.

edbrez

Donors to Irish charities are suckers.

velo.2010

waraf wrote: »

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)

Why not? I thought charity was something of a 'selfless endeavour' with those involved in raising the fortunes of those less able, while taking just enough for themselves - obviously not!

I've always had a problem with 'charity' ever since those Trocaire boxes were forced upon us in primary school. Why specifically Trocaire? What about Concern, Gorta, Goal etc? Ah, how could I forget, the Catholic church of course. It became something of a competition to fill up those boxes which put pressure on families, especially those from working class areas. Kids with older siblings or from a slightly better off background would come in looking for a second or sometimes third box, while those with a smaller family and less well off would almost be shamed if they couldn't fill just one box. Further shaming would follow for some kids if the teacher decided to open up the boxes at the end of lent and pour the coins into a bucket. Any bronze coins were frowned upon by some and would unfairly and publically reinforce the fact some kids were poorer than others.

Recent revelations in the media only serve to remind me of my suspicion of any charity that does not give practically all of its donations (aside from the heat/light bills for an office etc) for the purposes they advertise. Rather than being a vocation, charity these days has become something of a lifestyle choice for some while it embellishes the CV of others. You practically need a masters degree at this stage to be accepted as a volunteer for any of the well known local charities here. It serves both sides well as the charity can say they only get the best people while '6 months with SVP' looks good on a resume. All the while, genuine folk who have personal experience and could actually offer real help and guidance to a charity are left at the door.

If billions can be raised and matched by government each year, then do we really need that number of charities for specific causes - diluting the funds available due to salaries, gross expenses and raising awareness. Awarenes! I can't stand that term now. Re mental health charities - tackling mental health starts with helping those that are suffering. Right now there are people waiting on a bed in the mental health unit of Naas hospital. Instead of 'raising awareness' the 600k raised by 'Cycle against Suicide' in 2014 could, in theory, be used to open some more bed space in that hospital. But no, lets spend it on raising 'awareness' and propping up a charity bike ride.

We don't need half a dozen or more charities/agencies fighting for public's conciousness and good will when it comes to mental health. We need one agency, one helpline number, one government policy on mental health - not the piecemeal arrangement that currently exits and frankly doesn't work. Perhaps this recent scandal may force the government ot take much needed action in this area.

As for someone like Bressie. What does he charge for corporate gigs now? 2-3 grand a pop? His mental health website was created and is run by his talent management agency. So yeah, there is money to be made from Charity!

eviltwin

Well said Velo. I've worked in the charity sector for a good while now and I'm sick of organisations putting on the poor mouth and relying on interns, jobsbridge and volunteer workers to provide front line services while senior management pay themselves massive salaries and have generous expense accounts. The CEOs are just the tip of the iceberg.

Two Tone

Why is it "Irish style"?

CatFromHue

Two Tone wrote: »

Why is it "Irish style"?

yeah I wondered that too.