A High Court judge disqualified Peter Conlon from company management for 16 years after he consented to orders acknowledging that he had knowingly participated in Pembroke Dynamic Internet Services Ltd’s business with intent to defraud creditors.
The judgment, delivered by Mr Justice Mark Sanfey on 9 July 2021, followed a settlement reached on the morning a six-day hearing was due to begin. The parties agreed the substantive orders, but left the length of the disqualification to the court. The judge said that was the only issue he had to decide.
The agreed terms included a declaration that Conlon was responsible for the company’s debts up to €2 million and judgment for that sum in favour of liquidator Myles Kirby. They also included three-year restraints on removing or dissipating assets below €2 million, subject to an allowance for living expenses from combined pension income capped at €428.50 a week. Conlon agreed that funds in four Ulster Bank accounts, then amounting to about €371,504 with interest and currency fluctuations, were held in trust for charities and could be distributed by the liquidator in accordance with law.
The liquidator’s evidence put the shortfall owed to charities at about €3.64 million. He said donations had been mixed with company funds and used for operating costs. Conlon’s earlier witness statement disputed the liquidator’s account of the company’s role and maintained that the bank accounts belonged to the Ammado Foundation, which had lent money to Pembroke. Because the proceedings had settled, the judge did not resolve disputed matters between the witness statements. He noted, however, that Conlon’s consent to the agreed declaration amounted to an acceptance of knowing participation in business carried on with intent to defraud creditors.
Kirby argued that the conduct warranted a disqualification longer than ten years. Conlon’s solicitor submitted that the case was less serious than a cited precedent, that Conlon had made no personal gain, and that his age and time spent in Swiss custody should be considered. The settlement terms expressly acknowledged that Conlon made no personal gain or profit from the conduct.
Justice Sanfey assessed the appropriate period before mitigation at 18 years, describing the admitted conduct as particularly grave. He then reduced the period by two years, taking account of the settlement, Conlon’s time in prison in Switzerland awaiting fraud charges, his health complaints, and the absence of personal gain. The court ordered a 16-year disqualification under section 842 of the Companies Act 2014, alongside the other agreed orders. The judgment does not state the outcome of the Swiss legal process.