{"id":491308,"date":"2026-06-09T21:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/491308\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T21:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T21:09:10","slug":"financial-services-firm-in-dispute-with-founder-is-seeking-to-be-wound-up-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/491308\/","title":{"rendered":"Financial services firm in dispute with founder is seeking to be wound up \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A financial services company that was ordered last month not to take any steps to terminate the employment of one of its advisers and shareholders is seeking to be wound up, the High Court<\/a> heard.<\/p>\n

Mentor Financial Services was set up in 2002 by Michael Hoare (62). Within weeks of signing an expansion and shareholders\u2019 agreement with five other individuals earlier this year, the company sought to make his position untenable, it has been claimed.<\/p>\n

As a result, Hoare took out an interim injunction last month restraining the firm and the other shareholders from taking steps to terminate his employment or in relation to his shares. <\/p>\n

The injunctions were against the company and the other shareholders \u2013 Elizabeth Lavin, Darren Nolan, John Flynn, Daniel McKeown and Adam Penrose \u2212 and required the defendants to continue to pay Hoare\u2019s salary pending resolution of the dispute or further order of the court.<\/p>\n

The defendants were also restrained, pending further order, from taking any actions in relation to Hoare\u2019s one-sixth share of the firm and from communicating to third parties to the effect that he has ceased employment with Mentor. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Bernard Dunleavy, barrister for Hoare, told the court mediation to settle the dispute was scheduled for last week but, shortly before it was due to take place, his side received correspondence to say the company was insolvent and would be holding an extraordinary meeting of shareholders to have it wound up. As a result the mediation did not go ahead.<\/p>\n

Counsel said the defendants wrote to the court in the meantime, outlining the insolvency. Judge Brian Cregan, who was handed a copy of the letter, said he would not read it as it was \u201csomewhat improper\u201d, especially as the defendants had legal representation.<\/p>\n

Dunleavy said not all of the court\u2019s order had been complied with and he was seeking an early hearing of his application to turn the injunction from interim to interlocutory, which means it remains in place until the entire matter is resolved. His client needed an order to allow him to access information on the company\u2019s system, particularly as he would now need to get back on his feet if the firm is going to be wound up.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Financial adviser gets injunction halting efforts to force him out of company he foundedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The judge said he was prepared to hear the application this Thursday as it was an urgent matter. He also said that, on the basis of what counsel had told him, it appeared that this was a case of \u201cthe cuckoo plundering the nest\u201d once the new shareholders\u2019 agreement had been signed.<\/p>\n

He said he wanted an affidavit from the defendants explaining why they had chosen to go into liquidation. He also said Dunleavy could bring applications for the attachment and committal to prison of the other shareholders for alleged breach of his previous orders.<\/p>\n

Neil Rafter, barrister for the defendants, said he had only just come into the case after his clients\u2019 previous solicitors no longer acted for them. He was seeking time to deal with the matter.<\/p>\n

However, he said that he hoped the matter could be resolved before Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A financial services company that was ordered last month not to take any steps to terminate the employment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,73,61,60],"class_list":["post-491308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-high-court","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}