An alleged €2m fraud has been uncovered at the company that wields control of the arcade and casino business, known as Dr Quirkey’s Good Time Emporium on Dublin’s O’Connell Street.
This disclosure is contained in new consolidated accounts for Dublin Pool and Juke Box Ltd, which reveals the alleged misappropriation of funds totalled €1.009m in 2018 and €1.017m in 2019.
The business is owned by “slot-machine tycoon”, 75-year-old, Mr Richard Quirke, father in law of Rosanna Davison, latter an Irish actress, singer, writer, model and beauty queen, who was crowned Miss World back in 2003.
Our readers will remember that Mr Quirke had, back in 2009, been associated with a €460 million plan, which was promoted by Tipperary Independent TD, Mr Michael Lowry.
The plan back then was to build a massive entertainment facility which was to include a five-star 500-bedroom hotel; casino; full-size replica of the White House; an underground entertainment centre seating 15,000 people; 18-hole golf course; driving range; retail outlets; timber chapel, heliport; 6,000 car spaces; new racecourse for horses and a new greyhound track on a 325 hectare (800-acre) site, close to the village of Two-Mile-Borris, Thurles, Co Tipperary.
In December 2009, An Taisce, objecting to the plan through their heritage officer Mr Ian Lumley, suggesting that this plan was based on a “Failed International Development Model”.
Eventually, the planning body gave the casino the go-ahead in June 2011, refusing permission for the 15,000-seater “underground” music venue. However, same ran into trouble again, almost immediately, following the government announcing plans to overhaul Ireland’s gambling laws, thus blocking large, resort-style casinos.
The original planning application for this development, expired in 2018, but the developer applied for (and was granted) an extension in February 2018 (due to expire in March 2023).
To date, Mr Quirke is understood to have built up a sizeable fortune from his Dublin based casino business, with most of the company’s wealth concentrated in property.
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