BT/0832

Murphy chose fine rather than reveal accounts
By Sean O'Driscoll

THE last company accounts of Colm Murphy, the man convicted on Tuesday of plotting the Omagh bombing, were rejected by the Irish Companies Office because they were more than nine months out of date, the Belfast Telegraph has learnt.
Murphy's company paid a £340 fine rather than publish up to date accounts, at a time when the Omagh Victims Group launched their campaign to seek compensation from the Omagh bombers.
Victim spokesperson, Michael Gallagher, is to consult with specialist solicitors in an effort to recover some of millionaire Murphy's extensive assets. The accounts for Emerald Enterprises, the company that owns Murphy's three storey pub in Dundalk, show that it had fixed assets of £207,893 in August 31,2000. The following month, the Omagh victims announced that they were to sue the Omagh bombers. No up to date accounts have been published since that date. The Companies Registration Office in Dublin rejected the 2001 accounts, and attached a document to the Emerald Enterprise accounts declaring that: "This annual return is being rejected as the accounts annexed predate the date to which the annual return is made by more than nine months." Murphy's wife, Anne, who is joint director with her husband, paid a £340 fine under a new company law and undertook to return up to date accounts in the future.
Mr Gallagher told the Telegraph that a considerable amount of the £300,000 raised by the Omagh victims had already been spent on specialist legal advice in an effort to sue Murphy and the others.