ALL-IRELAND WINNING Wexford hurler Paul Codd has been jailed for his refusal to cooperate with his bankruptcy.
At the High Court, Ms Justice Caroline Costello committed Mr Codd to Mountjoy Prison after he refused to answer questions about his assets put to him by the court appointed official in charge of his bankruptcy, the official assignee Mr Chris Lehane.
The Judge said the refusal amounted to a contempt of court.
The now retired player, who won an All Ireland senior title in 1996, was arrested on Thursday morning in Co Wexford and was brought before the Court by members of the gardaí on foot of a warrant issued for his attachment in March 2014.
Contempt
The court issued the warrant after it was informed Mr Codd had not complied with undertakings, given in January 2014, to meet with Mr Lehane. The warrant was not executed until Thursday morning as Mr Codd was believed to be living outside of the jurisdiction.
Mr Codd was committed to Mountjoy Prison until Monday 27 July next after he failed to answer questions concerning his assets put to him by Mr Lehane. His committal came after he was warned by the Judge “consequences would flow” if he did not answer.
Mr Lehane said the examination was required due to Mr Codd’s failure to co-operate with his office, and disclose details about his assets. He said he had serious concerns about the matter on grounds including Mr Codd had transferred land to another party which a bankrupt cannot do. Mr Lehane said that if Mr Codd co-operated with his office the matter would be finished.
Locked out
In his examination Mr Lehane asked Mr Codd about his bank accounts. However Mr Codd’s only response to that question was that all his accounts had been frozen” and he was “locked out of them” by the Official Assignee.
Mr Codd then asked the court to give him time to get representation. He said he was unhappy the examination was proceeding in the presence of lawyers for other parties and the media. “I have nobody, I have no legal help, and that is not very fair,” he said, adding he felt he was being “railroaded” into dealing with the matter.
He said he applied for free legal aid, which he said he was entitled to. “I got no soot at all from the court,” he said.
Wexford fields
The Judge asked him about the location of farm machinery which had been leased to his company. Mr Codd said the items were “in a field near Wexford town”, but he didn’t know who owned the field. However he did not give a specific location after the Judge pointed out there are “many fields” near Wexford.
After making repeated requests to Mr Codd to answer question the Judge said Mr Codd was not willing to co-operate. The Judge, who rejected Mr Codd was being railroaded into anything, committed him to prison to 27 July next, or until a time he was willing to purge his contempt.
Second jail time
In December 2014 Mr Codd was briefly jailed for his alleged non-compliance with the bankruptcy process. Two days before Christmas Mr Codd secured his release from Mountjoy Prison. He was brought there on December 21st last following his arrest on foot of a warrant, issued in October 2013, for his alleged non-compliance.
He was released after providing a statement of affairs to the official assignee and promised to co-operate. He subsequently claimed he was coerced into giving undertakings to cooperate with his bankruptcy in a bid to avoid spending Christmas in prison.
The following January Mr Codd gave sworn undertakings to co-operate with Mr Lehane and also to return several items of machinery which had been leased to Mr Codd’s now dissolved company Paul Codd Ltd.
Despite giving an undertaking to cooperate Mr Codd failed to co-operate. By refusing to co-operate Mr Lehane argued Mr Codd had breached his undertakings and “was in contempt of court”.
The court also heard Mr Codd had also failed to comply with an undertaking to return machinery leased by Friends First Finance, or comply with orders to return €460,000 worth of farm machinery leased by Deutsche Leasing Ireland.
In March 2013 Mr Codd, of Askinfarney, Clonroche, Co Wexford, was adjudicated bankrupt by the High Court arising from his failure to satisfy a judgment secured against him in 2011 for €530,000.
His bankruptcy arose out of a sale by David Deasey, a dairy farmer from Timoleague, Co Cork. He sold Mr Codd 46 acres of land at Askinfarney for about €800,000 and, while a deposit of €40,000 was paid, Mr Codd had not completed the sale.
Mr Deasey obtained a judgment of €530,326 against Codd in 2011 and when that was not satisfied Mr Deasey petitioned the court to have Codd adjudicated bankrupt. Mr Codd’s debts, combined with those of his company, are estimated to be €4.9 million.
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