Mahon Tribunal: Money belonging to Mr Liam Lawlor was moved around his client account in the office of an English solicitor from one company in this account to another, the Mahon Tribunal was told yesterday.
The solicitor, Mr Anthony Seddon, told the Mahon Tribunal that in September 2000 he was told by Mr Lawlor he would be receiving £100,000 on his behalf, which was commission for a property deal in Piccadilly, London.
This came as a cheque, with the payee's name left blank, from Lunar Sea Developments, a UK firm linked to the Maplewood Homes in Ireland. Mr Seddon said he filled in the payee's name, that of one of Mr Lawlor's companies, before lodging the cheque.
The tribunal is continuing its examination of a number of transactions between various companies controlled by Mr Lawlor. This includes £100,000 Mr Lawlor obtained for the sale of land in Lucan three years ago. Earlier this year, the tribunal heard how Mr Lawlor had created false invoices to hide this money.
The tribunal heard how various amounts were transferred between Mr Lawlor's company, Demographic and Strategic Consultancies, and a Prague-based company, Zatecka, which, Mr Seddon agreed, was also effectively controlled by Mr Lawlor.
It also emerged yesterday that Mr Seddon was providing information concerning Zatecka, on instructions from Mr Lawlor, to the Dublin solicitors, Delahunts, who were dealing with the tribunal on Mr Lawlor's behalf. Mr Lawlor was therefore issuing instructions on both sides of the correspondence concerning the disclosure of documents to the tribunal.
Before he started giving evidence, a statement was read to the tribunal on behalf of Mr Seddon saying it was never his intention not to travel to Dublin and co-operate with the tribunal, and he regretted if this impression was given. But when the extent of the evidence required from him became clear, he realised he would need more time.
It had also been suggested that costs outstanding to him were an impediment to him co-operating, the statement said. But this was never the case. Mr Liam Lawlor did not owe him a significant amount of fees, he said. He said he had co-operated extensively in the discovery of documents, and had received no payment from Mr Lawlor for this. Mr Seddon is being paid £260 an hour for giving evidence to the tribunal.
It also emerged that lodgements recorded by Mr Seddon in Mr Lawlor's client account in London, in the name of Zatecka, were not registered to this company's account in Prague.