A former financial director of JMSE has told the Flood Tribunal that James Gogarty made wild allegations about the Murphy group in 1989. Roger Copsey said that Mr Gogarty's claims about a slush funds and cash payments to directors were without foundation.
Roger Copsey was originally an accountant for the Murphy Group and rejoined the company during a turbulent time in the late eighties. He was brought in to help restructure the company's management and help Joseph Murphy regain control of the group. Around that time, he investigated a number of complaints made by James Gogarty.
However, today he told the Flood Tribunal that Mr Gogarty's allegations were without foundation. He said that James Gogarty was making wild allegations about fraud within JMSE that could have landed the company in serious trouble. He accepted that small cash payments were made to some managers, but, he said, there was no slush fund and there were no improper payments on the scale claimed by Gogarty.
Many of James Gogarty's allegations were made while he was trying to negotiate his pension, he said. Around this time relations became strained and at one point he refused to sign off the company's accounts. Roger Copsey said that board members had complained that Mr Gogarty had become too interfering and from then on he became awkward for sake of it.
