Mr Thomas Bailey denied at the tribunal yesterday that he had been at the scene of a fire in Finglas which destroyed a trailer containing documents of Bovale Ltd.
Mr John Gallagher SC, for the tribunal, said the container with documents had been destroyed by fire at around 6 a.m. on July 2nd, 1998. The fire officer gave evidence that a man approached him. Did he approach the officer? "I definitely didn't," said Mr Bailey.
Mr Gallagher said the fire officer described the man as stocky with a country accent and a cap. Mr Bailey said he did not think anybody would regard him as a stocky man. There were many countrymen who worked in Dublin and he never wore a cap. "I wasn't there anyway," he added.
Mr Gallagher said Mr Bailey had submitted an insurance claim and sent a letter to the broker stating that customer records and invoices had been disposed of because they were illegible due to the smoke and water.
Mr Bailey said his interpretation was that it was the container that was disposed of.
Earlier, Mr Bailey insisted that he and his brother made a cash payment of £50,000 to Mr James Gogarty on November 23rd, 1989, in the Royal Dublin Hotel in O'Connell Street, Dublin. Mr Gogarty has denied this.
Mr Gallagher said a sum of £50,000 had been drawn from Anglo-Irish Bank in November 1989. Another sum of £230,000 was also drawn down and was listed as being paid as a deposit for the Murphy lands Bovale had bought. Just above the listing was another entry, that of a sum of £50,000 paid to Grange Developments.
Mr Gallagher said a sum of £50,000 in the next column referred to the following year and was firstly referred to as an addition to the Murphy lands but was in fact transferred to the account of Mr and Mrs Thomas Bailey.