A restaurant-owner has told a court that a Dublin family was trying to put him out of business.
The allegation was made by Mr John Cooke, owner of Cooke's Cafe in South William Street, Dublin, while giving evidence in a claim by Mr Barton Kilcoyne, Ardoyne House, Pembroke Park, Dublin, for the recovery of a debt.
Mr Kilcoyne told Judge Patrick McCartan that from 1994 Mr Cooke had been in a relationship with his daughter, Natasha. In June 1994 he lent Mr Cooke £10,000 at an annual interest of 15 per cent. Natasha worked in one of Mr Cooke's businesses, a bakery in Francis Street, Dublin.
By December 1998, when the relationship ended, only £2,000 had been paid in 1998 by Cooke's Bakery.
Mr Kilcoyne denied to Mr Senan Allen, for Mr Cooke, that he had "eaten his way through £5,000 worth of dinners" run up on account in Cooke's Cafe. He had acted as an unpaid business consultant to Mr Cooke's companies and often had a meal in the restaurant while conducting business discussions.
Mr Cooke said Mr Kilcoyne had made the £10,000 loan to Cooke's Bakery. Negotiations had been entered into afterwards whereby Natasha had received a 50 per cent shareholding in the company for no consideration. He had paid him back £2,000 and acknowledged he still owed £8,000. Until differences with Mr Kilcoyne's daughter in December 1997, repayment of the £10,000 or the payment of interest was never mentioned. Since 1994 his companies had given jobs to every member of Mr Kilcoyne's family. Mr Kilcoyne had sought to have Cooke's Bakery handed over to his family. He told Mr Brian O'Moore, for Mr Kilcoyne, he was involved in four court proceedings involving the family. "The Kilcoynes are running an agenda to put me out of business with huge threats and everything else."
Judge McCartan said Mr Cooke had acknowledged he owed Mr Kilcoyne £8,000 and granted a decree for that amount with Courts Act interest (8 per cent) back to September 1998.