A bank has secured judgment at the Commercial Court for more than €2 million against an Air Corps officer and his wife over loans secured on properties which allegedly were the subject of multiple undertakings by missing solicitor Michael Lynn.
The couple were clients of Mr Lynn.
Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank said it was told the loans to John Mulkearns and Lorna Farrell were intended to clear several existing mortgages with other banks, to repay Mr Lynn €200,000 and to buy five properties in Bulgaria from Mr Lynn's company, Kendar Holdings Ltd.
The bank's proceedings against the couple, of Iona Road, Glasnevin, came before Mr Justice Peter Kelly in the Commercial Court this week, who made an order for judgment in the sum sought. Suzanne Boylan and Dominic Hussey appeared respectively for Mr Mulkearns and Ms Farrell and neither consented nor objected to judgment. No replying affidavit to the bank's claims had been made by the couple. The bank had claimed it made a loan offer to the couple in February 2006 of some €2 million, which was drawn down in March 2006.
According to the bank, the couple said the loan was to clear mortgages of €382,500 to Bank of Scotland over a property at 15 Weston Crescent, Lucan, Co Dublin; €380,000 to clear an existing Irish Nationwide Building Society mortgage over a property at 1 Hillcrest Park, Lucan; €260,000 to clear an existing Permanent TSB mortgage over a property at 1A Hillcrest Park, Lucan; and €300,000 to clear ACC mortgages over two properties, Nos 8 and 13, Cluain Buí, Liscara, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim.
The couple also said the loan was to repay some €200,000 owed to Mr Lynn and €493,500 to be invested in five apartments in Bulgaria through Kendar Holdings Ltd, the bank said.
The bank said the mortgage loan offer was conditional on a first legal charge being executed by the couple over six properties, the five already listed and a further property at 12 Griffith Drive, Glasnevin North, Dublin.
After seeing a schedule of properties in proceedings brought by the Law Society against Mr Lynn, the bank claimed that, "wrongly and in breach of the mortgage loan agreement between the parties", the defendants had failed to execute a first legal charge in favour of the bank over the six properties. In light of that alleged failure, the bank claimed the defendants had breached the mortgage loan agreement, failed to meet the agreed instalment repayments and owed the bank some €2,047,208, including interest. The bank demanded repayment of that sum on November 23rd last, but the sum had not been repaid.
In an affidavit, Lynda Carragher, head of credit and risk management with the bank, said it had sought a "meaningful explanation" from the couple as to how it had come about that multiple undertakings, representing multiple loans, had been secured on the properties in relation to which the bank had advanced monies. There had been no response to the bank's letters of demand, she added.
