Former FG councillor says €80,000 he got from developer was a loan

THE FORMER Fine Gael councillor on trial for corruption has claimed that the €80,000 he received from a property developer was a loan.

Fred Forsey jnr said his only interest in lobbying for land to be rezoned outside Dungarvan, Co Waterford, was to try and attract jobs to the town.

The 43-year-old told Waterford Circuit Criminal Court he intended repaying the money he received from the property developer and said it had nothing to do with lobbying members of Waterford County Council to rezone the land owned by the developer.

Mr Forsey, of Coolagh Road, Abbeyside, Dungarvan, is a former member of Dungarvan Town Council and denies three counts of receiving €60,000, €10,000 and €10,000 in corrupt payments from the property developer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, on three separates dates in 2006.

He was first co-opted to the town council in 2002 to replace Fine Gael TD John Deasy and was re-elected in 2004. The accused took the stand yesterday to tell how he had first made contact with the property developer when, working as a driving instructor, he needed cash to establish a website listing driving schools.

Mr Forsey had an idea for setting up a site with a locator map where the user could identify the nearest driving school and where they could download a driving test application form as well as getting quotes from insurance brokers. He was later contacted by somebody from Bank of Ireland finance about the proposed site.

Bank of Ireland wanted him to include details about its lending institutions on the site and were willing to pay him €350,000. But professional software engineers were charging about €2,000 a day, so he heard about this property developer and contacted him to ask for finance to get the venture up and running.

Mr Forsey phoned the property developer, who suggested he produce a business plan. The accused then drew up a 10-page document and the property developer said he would get his accountant to review it and get back to him. But the dotcom bubble burst in the United States, and Bank of Ireland said they would get back to him on it but never did.

Mr Forsey told the jury that he first learned of plans to bring industry to the location outside Dungarvan when he met a businessman in the town who asked him what was the problem with rezoning the land. The businessman said he knew of up to three companies that were willing to locate there if the land was rezoned.

Mr Forsey was unaware of the property developer’s involvement in the land at this stage and only learned of it when he checked the plans at Waterford County Council offices. He later spoke in favour of rezoning the land when it came up at a meeting of Dungarvan Town Council.

It had been raised by councillor Nuala Ryan, but he spoke up as it was “his baby”. And he wanted to be able to say there were “jobs coming to the town”, as he had promised in media interviews after the closure of Waterford Crystal that he would do everything he could to bring employment to Dungarvan.

Mr Forsey said he had no control over the rezoning as it was outside the town council area. But he had lobbied members of Waterford County Council to have it rezoned as he believed it would help attract industry. His interest was primarily to get jobs into the area, he said.

Mr Forsey said he was undergoing severe financial difficulties in his driving school business in 2006. His marriage was also under strain and he had been refused an overdraft by his bank so he decided to try and extend the family home at Pinewood Lawn, Dungarvan, and remortgage it so as to extract equity from it.

He said he had the extension priced at between €45,000 and €60,000 so he contacted the developer and explained his situation. The developer agreed to advance a loan, initially of €60,000, but he later lied to the developer and told him he needed more money to finish the extension even though the work never started.