Waste case: Legal argument continues in absence of jury

Legal argument continues in absence of jury


Trial of former council official and waste companies enters day seven


Ann Healy
Galway

DAILY UPDATE THE case against a former Mayo County Council Secretary and three west of Ireland waste disposal companies for breaching competition has moved into its seventh day.
Mr Padraic Hughes, who retired as Secretary of MCC in 2000, denies three counts of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring three waste disposal companies to commit an offence by entering into an agreement with each other over a nine-day period, between August 24, 2005 and September 2, 2005, to prevent, restrict or distort competition by sharing the market for the provision of waste collection services in Co Mayo, contrary to Section 4(1) and 6 of the Competition Act 2002, being an offence to which Section 8(1) of the Act applies.
He denies three further charges of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the three companies to enter into an agreement with each other between the same dates to share customers in Co Mayo thus preventing competition.
Company directors, Mr Stanley Bourke, of Bourke Waste Removal Limited, Clogher, Westport, Patrick McGrath and Declan McGrath of McGrath Industrial Waste Limited, Turlough, Castlebar, and Paul Gleeson of Wheeley Environmental Refuse Services Limited T/A Wers Waste, Weir Road, Tuam, Co Galway, all deny two charges each of entering into an agreement between August 24, 2005 and September 2, 2005, which had as its object the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition in the provision of domestic waste collection services in Mayo by: (a) sharing customers and, (b) sharing the market for the provision of such services. The three companies also deny two similar charges each.
On Monday last, when the prosecution concluded its case, evidence was heard from Competition Authority officers who had interviewed the defendants on various dates in July and August 2006.
In documents received from Mr Hughes the first officer, Mr Michael Downey, said he found a document outlining an arrangement between the parties about the division of areas between them in Co Mayo.  It contained a list of the defendants’ names alongside the areas their waste companies would service.
Mr Diarmuid McGuinness, SC for Bourke Waste Ltd, told Mr Downey that his client was not competing with any of the other defendants and already has his own customers in the Westport area and his only competitor up to that point had been MCC.
Mr Downey agreed with defence counsel that there were other waste disposal companies operating in Mayo at the time and they could continue to compete with the three defendant company’s before the court even if the BMG Ltd (the company set up by three defendants) tender had been accepted.
Mr Eksteen Maritz, a South African barrister who took up employment with the Competition Authority in September 2005 and headed up this investigation, said the Authority did not feel it necessary to employ the services of an economist to establish the customer base of each of the defendant company’s during the investigation.  He said the investigation concentrated on trying to establish whether or not the defendants had entered into an agreement to divide up the county between them.
“We had to establish if an agreement had been reached between existing competitors in the market.”
All of yesterday (Tuesday) was taken up with each legal team making submissions in the absence of the jury. The counsel for the four defendants have resumed their arguments this morning (Wednesday) and the jury is expected to be recalled by Justice Liam McKechnie at some stage this afternoon.