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Irish cycling great Stephen Roche ordered to repay €750,000 he took from his cycle tourism company

Court in Mallorca says 1987 Triple Crown winner used the money to finance a luxury lifestyle

Irish cycling great Stephen Roche has been ordered by a court to repay €750,000 he took from his Mallorca-based cycle tourism business Shamrock Events, which went bankrupt in 2019.

The judgment, handed down by a civil court in the island’s capital Palma, ruled that the winner of the Triple Crown in 1987 of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and road world championship had used the business’s assets to fund his own lifestyle instead of paying its creditors, reports Extra.ie.

The 62 year old, who according to the judgment fled Mallorca in 2017, has also been banned from acting as a company director in Spain for seven years and could also face prosecution under criminal law.

Judge Margarita Isabel Poveda Bernal said: “Mr Roche was perfectly conscious of its debt situation and instead of adopting measures to avoid financing the company, or entering into voluntary insolvency, he continued to loot the company accounts for his own private use when there was a minimum amount of income in them.

“Mr Roche’s sumptuous expenditure on things like golf, apartment rentals, hotels in Switzerland and Hungary, restaurants, clothes stores and fashion houses like Loewe, evidence a life of luxury and spending while his creditors weren’t paid.”

The judge continued: “It has been proven Mr Roche disappeared from Majorca in 2017 after some 25 years of business activity and that his disappearance coincided in time with the appropriation of his company’s income and the simultaneous failure to pay the Spanish taxman as well as creditors who had already provided accommodation and meals.”

She added that the company’s bankruptcy was “culpable rather than fortuitous.”

The company’s former bookkeeper, giving evidence in court, said that “in 2016 things began to go wrong, that money was missing, that Mr Roche would take money from the company accounts and then return it,” and that “the company’s financial adviser had warned Mr Roche about the accounting irregularities and told him he had to sort things out and put the money back or the company would go bust.”

Roche, who plans to appeal the decision, was also ordered to pay costs in the case.

He told Extra.ie: “I will bounce back, definitely.” Referring to his father Larry, who died this week, he added: “I promised my dad I would.”

When news of the company’s financial problems emerged in 2019, Roche promised to repay its creditors.

> Stephen Roche pledges to repay creditors of his Mallorca-based cycling holiday business

He said at the time: “I have been very upfront with the people I owe money to. When I hear I’ve run away or I’m trying to get away without paying, that’s not me. That’s not me. Never.”

 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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11 comments

Avatar
two20 | 2 years ago
1 like

If he left owing the Ponent Mar Hotel money, which I'm sure he has, it's an absolute disgrace. They stood by him for years and gave him, and his business, a fantastic location and friendly staff to enhance his cycling company. He keeps saying he'll pay his creditors yet 5 years down the road, nothing. 

Avatar
PRSboy | 2 years ago
0 likes

I went on a Stephen Roche cycling holiday in early 2017.  It was really well organised and good value.  The people that ran it were very friendly and helpful and I do hope they all got paid what they were owed.

Its a shame as it was very busy and presumably successful, so was brought down by Roche's greed.

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Gkam84 replied to PRSboy | 2 years ago
0 likes

Alot of them didn't get paid, but one of the former tour guides took on part of the business for one hotel, so at least some of them stayed in employment, and many others had second jobs. The main people to lose out were the hotels that didn't see any money.

Avatar
pablo | 2 years ago
2 likes

Sounds like he ran out of money and then started dipping into the company very naughty.

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pockstone | 2 years ago
6 likes

Never meet your heroes...or their accountants.

Avatar
maviczap replied to pockstone | 2 years ago
0 likes
pockstone wrote:

Never meet your heroes...or their accountants.

Yes, unfortunately so. I met him at the last cycle show I went to, he was on his holiday firms stand. I left very underwhelme, he was ok, but nothing like his TV persona.

Avatar
Gkam84 | 2 years ago
9 likes

Some of the staff were eventually paid after a long time threatening legal actions. I got my wage plus almost 50% that I'd added in late payment charges and business fees. Sadly others will never get their cut because he's now hiding in Hungary having ripped off some rather dodgy people on the island.

While working there, lots of the memorabilia that hung around the office or on bike stands, like his 1987 bikes "disappeared" and were shipped away to not get caught up in any legal actions. 

Avatar
AidanR | 2 years ago
4 likes

This has a whiff of Becker about it

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Jetmans Dad replied to AidanR | 2 years ago
0 likes

AidanR wrote:

This has a whiff of Becker about it

I was just about to comment that hiding assets from bankruptcy is precisely why Boris Becker is now in jail ... although his was a personal bankruptcy rather then corporate, so that might make a difference. 

Avatar
mdavidford replied to AidanR | 2 years ago
0 likes

AidanR wrote:

This has a whiff of Becker about it

Citrus and herbs?

Avatar
Jem PT replied to mdavidford | 2 years ago
4 likes

Apparently when Becker was sentenced to 2.5 years, he asked the Court usher "How many months is that?". She replied "30 love". 

 

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