EX-BOYS STAR RORY COWAN ‘SAID NO TO TAX SCHEME’
FORMER Mrs Brown’s Boys star Rory Cowan last night told how he was approached by accountant Roy Lyness to join the controversial tax avoidance scheme – but said he had wanted ‘nothing to do with it’.
He said he and the show’s creator Brendan O’Carroll, as well as O’Carroll’s wife Jennifer Gibney and ‘all the crew’, were present at a meeting with Mr Lyness to discuss the scheme.
Mr Cowan, 58, recalled: ‘I remember when Roy Lyness came to meet us in 2013.
‘He was looking after Mrs Brown’s Boys and it didn’t suit me to go in with him. I thought “Okay, he’s Brendan’s accountant so I’m never going to be his priority, I’m going to be way down the pecking order in terms of importance, and I want to be at the top of the list with my own accountant”.
‘I wasn’t too keen on him. I knew he had been involved in
‘In my head it wasn’t right’
the Jimmy Carr thing and I thought no, under no circumstances.’ Comedian Carr was previously involved in a tax avoidance controversy.
Recalling the meeting, Mr Cowan continued: ‘We all met in a hotel... and he [Mr Lyness] was trying to explain to us about this scheme. I kept interrupting him, saying in my innocence, “So these scams...” and he’d say, “No, it’s a scheme”, but I kept saying “scam” by mistake.’
Mr Cowan said that ‘in my head it wasn’t right’, adding: ‘He [Mr Lyness] was saying you could invest money and get it back in loans. I said, “Roy, my house has just cleared a 20-year mortgage, I’m debt-free for the first time in years, why would I want to get a loan and put myself back in debt?”
‘He was saying, “It’s a loan but it’s not a loan”. I said “No, loans have to be paid back, I’m not going to borrow my own money to pay it back to some group or scheme”.
‘I had cleared my own mortgage and the relief to know I was debt-free and no one else had a claim on my house, no one could take it away from me, was fantastic. I thought, “hang on a second, I’m not borrowing money”.
‘I wouldn’t get involved at all, I had nothing to do with it.’
Mr Cowan said most of the team involved in the hit comedy were present at the meeting, although only three went on to use the scheme set up by Mr Lyness. Brendan O’Carroll is not involved in the alleged offshore activity. Mr Cowan said: ‘Brendan and Jenny and all the crew were there [at the meeting]. It was me, Paddy [Houlihan], Danny [O’Carroll], Fiona [Delany], Marty [Martin Delany] and people from Lyness.’
Regarding the three cast members who availed of the scheme, he continued: ‘I feel so sorry for poor Paddy, Fiona and Marty. They went on the advice given by their accountant and unless you’re an expert, you don’t know if that advice is good or bad.
‘They were told this is the way it’s done. I always say if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. Paddy has been very honest, he has two baby girls and was probably thinking of their future.
‘He’s 34 and Mrs Brown’s Boys isn’t going to be around forever. He probably thought he was protecting his family’s future.
‘They’re not greedy people, they’re lovely people and I’d say they’re horrified to be all over the papers like this.’
Mr Cowan said he had very little to do with Mr Lyness. He said: ‘The only times I saw Roy and his wife were when they came to our live shows.’