Bank repossesses home owned by Kenneth Drumm and his estranged wife

Mother-of-four Rachel Drumm and her estranged husband Kenneth have lost the €1 million home they owned together in Skerries, Co Dublin.

Mrs Drumm, who still lives at Summerville, 11 Foxgrove, Skerries, with her four children, broke down in tears in the Circuit Civil Court when Judge Jacqueline Linnane handed the house back to EBS Limited.

Mr Drumm is a brother of former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm.

Barrister Tadgh Dorgan, counsel for the bank, the former EBS Building Society before it was taken over by AIB, told the court there was a debt of €1,262,555 outstanding on the property.

Dermot Sheehan, counsel for Mrs Drumm, asked the court to allow his client a stay of six months on a possession order to allow his client make arrangements for finding new accommodation.

Judge Linnane said it was so long since a payment had been made against three loans taken out on the property that she would allow a stay of just three months.

Mr Dorgan told the court that three separate loans had been taken out against Summerville. An initial loan in 2006 of €780,000 had fallen into arrears in February 2008.

A second loan for €175,000 had been taken out in 2007 and a third for €100,000 had been drawn down in August 2008. The total amount of loans, interest and arrears currently owed to the bank was €1,262,555. Arrears alone stood at €295,000.

Mr Dorgan said there was a dispute between the parties in relation to the legality of the bank’s application for a possession order and legal submissions had been made to the court.

He told the judge that Mr Drumm, whose current address was not stated in court, had not appeared since proceedings for possession had been taken out in June 2013 although he had instructed a firm of solicitors in the matter. He did not appear today nor was he represented in court.

Judge Linnane said five arrangements had been put in place with regard to repayments and none had been adhered to. Only token payments had been made, the last in April 2010, and the debt to the bank had not been disputed in any shape or form.

The judge said Mrs Drumm, in her affidavit to the court, had stated she had not given much thought to the fact she was mortgaging the property when she signed papers.

“There is nothing before the court to support a claim by Mrs Drumm that undue influence had been brought to bear on her. This is a bald allegation which has been made by her in an attempt to put off the inevitable,” Judge Linnane said.

Refusing the application for a stay of six months, she said there had been a considerable time lapse since any money had been paid off the debt. She would allow three months for Mrs Drumm to make alternative accommodation arrangements.