Do you know anything about these guys that could help stop the ACS?Four Seasons Promotions,John Shovlin,Gerry Dillon,Lantern Securities,MCM Security. Thank you!

The ACS and their remote directors are a string of limited companies and a business entity known as a “trading as”. The companies are:

Four Seasons Promotions Limited

which “Regards MCM Security Group Limited as its parent company”

However “This company’s ultimate parent company is Lantern Securities Limited”

The beneficial owners of Lantern Securities Limited are John Shovlin and Gerry Dillon, both of whom have Dublin City addresses.

The Fourth business entity is “trading/as ACS” and seems to be attached to Four Seasons Promotions Limited.

The audited balance sheet of MCM Security Group Limited as at 31/03/2014 is identical in every respect with the audited balance sheet as at 31/03/2013 – the previous year. This must mean that they did not trade at all last year as they have exactly the same amount of money in the bank as they did the year before.

One of the companies has 2,600,000 invested. It would be interesting to find out where. Our concern is that the ACS are connected to research companies and the dogs' suffering might continue.

Four Seasons Promotions, trading as ACS also don’t have a Tax Clearance Cert for last year. A tax clearance cert was a requirement of the tender, I remember, so that would make the tender invalid.

A tax clearance cert just means that you have paid all the tax you owed. If you don’t have a cert, it means that you are in dispute with the Revenue about the amount you owe.

Four Season’s auditors resigned in 2012, the next lot resigned in 2013 and nothing is known of those that replaced them.

The only known premises run by ACS is the Horse Pound in Cork, run by Pat O’Connor. 

John Jo Fitzpatrick was convicted of cruelty to horses last year in Galway but still runs a Department of Agriculture-approved slaughterhouse. I do not know if he is connected to the ACS.

Jo Moran.  He was Kilkenny Council’s previous contractor to impound horses. I do not know if he is connected to the ACS either.

Are the Roads All Connected?

When I was attending the Council meeting in Ennis, Co. Clare on Friday we gathered in the foyer. Suddenly a group of 50 people arrived. They weren’t there to protect pound dogs. They were there to object to the motorway being put through a village. People have received compulsory purchase orders for their homes and its an extraordinary situation. So, in Clare they have that road and the pound. In Kilkenny we have the CAS and the pound. In addition to the extraordinary anagram, it would be interesting to know if there are connections between the directors of the CAS and directors of ACS!

Finally, it got me thinking about the Tax Clearance Cert. It could be something small like Four Seasons didn’t declare all the horses they seized and profits arriving from disposing of them. But what if it points to something more damning? I remembered the Whistle Blowing of the HSBC Bank. 300 people in Ireland had over 3 billion hidden in that bank. We have still not been told who they were. If Shovlin or Dillon have big money in that bank that would be another reason that they are being asked for more tax than they want to pay.

I believe the onus is on the local authority to know exactly who they are giving a public contract to and the service they will provide, that's all.

My brilliant idea of the day was to hand all the horse pounds and wardenship over to the ISPCA as well. The only thing ACS has that the ISPCA don’t have is the nationwide network. This is important when dealing with traveler’ horses and ponies as they often try and retrieve them aggressively. If all the pounds were ISPCA, then partnerships between counties means horses could be impounded, rehabilitated, rehomed and sold two or three counties away from where they were abandoned. The councils and even ISPCA can treat them as a ‘going concern’ or ‘make them pay for themselves’ or even maybe ‘make a profit’ but this is where we can mention what the ISPCA have that would rally help! The ability to make a Judgement Call. These cannot be over rated. Judgement calls govern what the animal needs, what is a safe place for it to be, who has the money to care for it or buy it later and bring it on, training wise, or into a good home.

The first judgement call must be made by the government and local authorities though. They must decide NOT TO AWARD the pound contracts to the Four Seasons Promotions, trading as ACS.

Finally there is the question of whether there was a court case and if it was secretly held. I would dearly love to know the outcome as well. All I know so far is that Kilkenny and Offaly were in Court on Friday and Co. Clare councillors are deciding who gets Ennis dog pound based on the judgement that was delivered.