The High Court has continued orders preventing a Dublin hotel accounts assistant and her husband from dissipating their assets amid allegations that she misappropriated €597,000 worth of payments from the hotel.
The freezing order was made last Friday, with only the hotel operator represented, against Andja (also known as Anda) Gulic Pejovic and her husband Dusan Pejovic, both of Seagrave Drive, Meakstown, Dublin. involving four bank accounts they are linked to.
They required that the couple must not dissipate their assets below €582,000 which is the amount, it is claimed, that has not been recovered by the hotel, The Address Connolly, Amiens Street, formerly the North Star Hotel.
There was no appearance in court for the couple when the case returned on Wednesday. Ms Pejovic is currently on maternity leave and believed to be in Croatia while Mr Pejovic is still here, the court heard.
Mr Justice Oisín Quinn continued Friday’s freezing order, pending determination of the proceedings, but varied it to allow for the situation where the defendants may be entitled to pay ordinary debts and living expenses. He also gave the Pejovics liberty to apply to the court in that regard.
The judge said the breadth of the freezing order sought went far beyond the appropriate scope of such an order as it would mean a woman, who is on maternity leave, would be “stopped from buying a pint of milk”.
The freezing order application was brought by the hotel operators, BC McGettigan Ltd, against Ms Pejovic who was described as a “trusted employee” for some eight years.
Her husband was joined as a defendant as he was “bound up in this fraud”, said Frank Kennedy BL, for BC McGettigan.
Counsel said it is alleged that over a three-year period Ms Pejovic generated 152 payments that were purported to be to certain suppliers or employees. The payments went into two Revolut bank accounts in Lithuania and one in Ireland, as well as Ms Pejovic’s Bank of Ireland account into which her salary is paid.
After it was discovered, while she was on maternity leave, that a particular supplier to the hotel had not been paid when it was believed he had been, a review discovered payments to the Revolut accounts.
It was also discovered she allegedly sent a large number of emails, including copies of the company payroll and procurement database, to her husband. It was also alleged there was a forged tenancy agreement created by Ms Pejovic for a property in Dubai and which Mr Pejovic was named as the landlord.
It was not clear what were the purposes of sending that information or setting up the tenancy, counsel said.
Mr Kennedy said Bank of Ireland (BoI) and Revolut had been notified of Friday’s freezing order. While BoI had appeared in court and were neutral as to his client’s application, there was no appearance for Revolut.
Mr Justice Quinn said he did not think it proper to make any orders against those banks or any other party without first hearing separate applications, in which the banks are put on notice.
The court did not have any basis for the sweeping nature of the orders being sought, he said.
He gave BC McGettigan liberty to apply to make non-party discovery applications and said they could come back before the court next week.
