A DUBLIN couple have claimed before the High Court that they have been intimidated and harassed and have received threatening phone calls in a dispute with a builder over €18,000.
At the High Court yesterday, Stephen Moran, a senior trader with the National Treasury Management Agency, and his wife Mary Heffernan, a senior civil servant with the Office of Public Works at Farmleigh House, secured temporary injunctions against a director of a construction company and an associate who claim they are owed money for building work carried out at the couple’s home.
The injunctions were secured against Kyle Ryan, Rathcoole, Co Wicklow, and Jonathan Phelan, Ballyboden, Dublin, who, the court was told, was one of a number of men who had been carrying out Mr Ryan’s instructions to engage in the “campaign of harassment” against the couple.
The couple, of Marino Crescent, Clontarf, Dublin, deny they owe money to Mr Ryan’s firm. The court heard that they asked the builder to leave the site due to poor workmanship, and believe they have a counterclaim for alleged negligence and breach of contract.
The injunctions restrain the defendants, their servants and their agents from besetting, menacing, harassing or intimidating them at their home or their places of work. The defendants and anyone under their control are further restrained from picketing the couple’s home, place of business or anywhere where the couple are present.
The injunctions were granted yesterday by Mr Justice John Cooke following an application made by Colm Hennessy, for the Morans. The judge made that matter returnable before the court next week.
In an affidavit to the court, Mr Moran said that since early May, he and his family had been subject to “a campaign of harassment and intimidation”.
He said he contracted a company controlled by Mr Ryan, KEK Construction, to carry out works at their home in November 2010, after the original contractor went into liquidation. Mr Moran said problems arose which gave him serious concerns about KEK’s ability to do the work.
Last February, Mr Moran said he asked the KEK workers to leave the site, which they did.
He paid KEK €67,000, and hired another builder to remedy what he said was KEK’s “defective workmanship”. He said Mr Ryan subsequently invoiced him for an additional €18,786 for works done. After receiving a final demand last April, Mr Moran said he began to receive intimidating and disturbing phone messages which he believed were from associates of Mr Ryan.