Financial adviser granted bail after father lodges savings

A Dublin-based independent financial adviser was yesterday granted bail by the Magistrates' Court in Derry after his pensioner father lodged almost all of his life savings as surety with the court to secure his son's release from custody.

Frederick Folland flew from Edinburgh to lodge with the court his shares and investments, valued at £230,000 (€339,000). Before he lodged his personal savings, Mr Folland was advised by Resident Magistrate Mr Barney McElholm that if his son substantially breeched his bail terms, the lodgement would be forfeited.

Mr Folland's son, Drew Folland (36), a father of two, had spent the weekend on remand in Maghaberry Prison following a court appearance in Derry last Saturday.

The defendant, from The Birches, Riverdale, Sandyford Road, Dublin, is charged with dishonestly obtaining, with intent to permanently deprive, £230,000 from Christopher and Mary Lynch. He is alleged to have committed the offence in Derry between August 28th, 2001 and June 7th, 2002. The money has not been recovered.

The magistrate was told the defendant was remanded in custody over the weekend after he was unable to lodge a £100,000 cash surety at his original court appearance last Saturday.

Applying for bail, the defendant's solicitor Mr Seamus Quigley, said his client's father had flown from Edinburgh and was willing to go guarantor for his son. "The cash option is not an option. With respect, if anyone walked into this courtroom today with £100,000 in cash, they would probably be arrested.

Mr Quigley said the defendant's matrimonial home was at Petrie Way in the Culmore Road area of Derry. He said that the potential sale of the house was part of "a bitter and acrimonious matrimonial case" between the defendant and his wife.

The sale of the house in terms of providing bail for the defendant was therefore, he said, highly unlikely.

Mr Quigley said that his client was arrested in the Waterside area of Derry last Friday night when he was on his fortnightly access visit to his two children.

Mr Folland Snr said in evidence that his home in Edinburgh, which he jointly owned with his wife, was valued at £350,000. The deeds of his home were, he said, available to the court. He also had savings and investments valued at £250,000 of which he was willing to lodge £230,000 as surety to have his son released on bail.

However a member of the PSNI's Fraud Squad opposed bail. He said the whereabouts of the money was still under investigation. He added that the defendant fled to another jurisdiction last October several days after the investigation started and he also believed the defendant would not return to Derry for further court appearances.

Mr McElholm granted the bail application.

He remanded the defendant on his own bail of £5,000 plus one surety of £230,000 to appear before the same court on November 29th. In addition he ordered the defendant to surrender his passport, not to apply for another passport and to report to the police in Derry once a fortnight.