Accountant Alan Hynes ordered to pay €550k costs

DISGRACED Wexford accountant Alan Hynes has had a costs order of €550,000 made against him after his membership of Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI) was revoked

At a costs hearing of a Chartered Accountants’ Regulatory Board (CARB) disciplinary appeals tribunal on Friday, the original costs order of €500,000 was affirmed along with costs of €50,000 in relation to the appeal awarded against him.

Mr Hynes’ original disciplinary action related to complaints from investors who lost €18 million in property ventures he controlled.

While Chairman of the tribunal Mr Anthony Aston pointed out that the original award of €500,000 against Mr Hynes seemed to be a ‘rather large sum’, he added that ‘nobody has made any application to us that should be varied and there’s no basis for us to interfere with that sum’.

The appeals tribunal heard that a series of correspondences were received from Mr Hynes since it effectively revoked his membership of CAI on Monday morning.

One email, signed off by a Jim Wallace and sent to a member of An Garda Síochána, saw reference to a matter being dealt with by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

A request that ‘all of the assets seized should be returned immediately’ was made in the email, dated February 5.

He also made reference to High Court costs, which the tribunal was not dealing with.

The original award of costs against Mr Hynes was made in March 2015 after multiple findings of professional misconduct were made.

The initial CARB tribunal found multiple instances of Mr Hynes being involved in conflict-of-interest situations that he did not deal adequately with.

Among the criticisms levelled at Mr Hynes were ‘egregious’ breaches of the institutes code, ‘unmitigated failures’ in relation to dealings with clients and ‘unconscionable behaviour’ in relation to clients whose money he dealt with.