Ansbacher accounts used to repay Celtic Helicopters' loan

Mr John Barnicle, a director of Celtic Helicopters, has told the tribunal he now accepts that money from the Ansbacher accounts was used to repay a £150,000 company loan from Irish Intercontinental Bank (IIB).

He said both he and Mr Ciaran Haughey, with whom he founded the aviation company, had originally believed the loan was paid off with monies that had nothing to do with the Ansbacher accounts.

However, Mr Barnicle said that he now accepts the company "did receive monies through Mr Desmond Traynor whose origin appears to have been the Ansbacher Cayman Ltd general deposit account with IIB and this money was used to repay the Celtic Helicopters' loan with IIB".

Specifically, Celtic Helicopters received £100,000 from Mr Traynor in return for an insurance claim and £50,000 as a pre-payment for flying hours for Mr Charles Haughey.

The insurance claim arose from an accident on September 24th, 1991, when one of the company's helicopters crashed off the Irish coast. The Bell 206 Jet Ranger had been hired for the day by Irish Company Incorporated (ICI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of a US film company, which was using the aircraft for the making of the movie Far and Away.

Celtic Helicopters was paid £95,000 in December 1991 by Church and General with whom the helicopter was insured.

However, on October 3rd, 1991, Mike Murphy Insurance, acting on behalf of Celtic Helicopters, had instigated a claim against ICI and its parent company for £200,000. This sum was based on the book value of the aircraft (£162,000), plus an estimated loss of earnings.

Mr Barnicle said the company had obtained the opinion of a junior counsel, who stated in a letter, dated February 3rd, 1992, that the company had a good claim.

Mr Barnicle said the company was endeavouring to arrange finance at the time and had contacted Mr Traynor to assist in this regard. He said Mr Traynor suggested that he assign the claim to him for the sum of £100,000.

A cheque for that amount was recorded in the company's cash book and, on February 8th, 1992, was lodged with three other cheques totalling £54,366.54 to the company's current account at the Dublin Airport branch of the Bank of Ireland. One of these cheques was the £50,000 pre-payment for flight hours for Mr Haughey.

A payment of £153,868.84 was then made from the Celtic Helicopters account to IIB in return for the loan which had been acquired in March 1991.

Mr Barnicle was asked was he surprised that Mr Traynor was willing to take over the claim despite the fact that it was not certain whether it would ever yield a return. He replied: "I wasn't surprised. I was very happy about it."

Mr Barnicle said he had not asked Mr Traynor to take over the claim but "he knew we were looking for finance. He knew we had a court case against the Irish company and it looked like we had a good chance of winning the case and, as in any of these cases it could take six or seven years to collect your money, he suggested a way of helping the company by buying the assignment".

Mr Barnicle said Celtic Helicopters had no further financial interest in the claim and would not retain any reward that might be forthcoming. He said the company had recouped all the loss it was entitled to.

However, he admitted Celtic Helicopters had been in correspondence with Mike Murphy Insurance and Keane Solicitors Ltd in relation to the claim as recently as last June.

He said this was for no other reason "except the reason that he (Mr Traynor) kindly bought the assignment for £100,000".

He added that he had no contact with Mr Traynor prior to his death in May 1994 in relation to the deal, nor with Mr Traynor's estate or family after he died.

Regarding the evidence given by Mr Michael Curneen, a former lending official with Smurfit Paribas, who said he was told Mr Charles Haughey was a 12.5 per cent shareholder in Celtic Helicopters, Mr Barnicle said he had no idea where he got that impression. He said that to the best of his knowledge Mr Haughey was never a shareholder in the company.

Mr Barnicle accepted both the £100,000 and £50,000 payments came from an Ansbacher account although he did not know it at the time.

Earlier, Mr William Corrigan, a solicitor acting as personal representative of the late Mr P.V. Doyle, said he had no record of any investment made by the hotelier in Celtic Helicopters in March 1985.

"We haven't been able to find any documentation relating to Celtic Helicopters," said Mr Corrigan.

The chairman of the tribunal yesterday called for greater co-operation from legal practitioners in producing witness statements and documents.

Mr Justice Moriarty said he was "not going to go into matters of possible recrimination or individual cases". But, he said, he "would be extremely grateful if from henceforth practitioners could please seek to go that extra mile to maximise co-operation with the tribunal".

He said the tribunal's 11-day adjournment was to enable practitioners to comply "with the reasonable requests" of the tribunal's legal advisers to obtain further documents and statements.

"Whilst certain practitioners have toiled very considerably to comply with those requests, in some cases the documentation that was hoped for has come in on a somewhat last-moment basis, or has not been completed in accordance with what was anticipated."