ACC BANK has seized a BMW saloon car from the Donnybrook home of developer Paddy Kelly.
Bailiffs acting on foot of a warrant to the Dublin city Sheriff’s Office took the seven-year-old 7 Series yesterday.
The car was featured in an article in The Irish Timeslast month when Mr Kelly spent a day with Irish Timesassistant editor Fintan O'Toole travelling to developments around Dublin and its environs.
Mr Kelly, who owes various banks €350 million, was unapologetic in the article about the extent of his debts.
Two weeks ago he appeared at the MacGill summer school in Co Donegal, where he once again seemed apparently untroubled by his borrowings and drank champagne conspicuously while joking about the car and his lifestyle.
Mr Kelly said yesterday that the car, which was seized without warning when Mr Kelly was not in the house, belonged to his wife, and had been taken unlawfully.
“I don’t know if it was for show or . . . trying to embarrass us or whatever. We are going to take legal advice on this.”
Mr Kelly said he had never owned the car and that the sheriff's office had evidence the car was in his wife's name prior to seizing it. Last month Mr Kelly told The Irish Timesthat he had bought the car in 2003 for €139,000.
Last year Mr Kelly moved out of his home on Dublin’s salubrious Shrewsbury Road to his current address on Morehampton Road in Donnybrook, amid pressure from banks about repayments on loans.
ACC, which is owned by the Rabobank Group of the Netherlands, obtained a judgment last April against Mr Kelly and his sons Simon and Christopher for €16.9 million in respect of property deals that have gone sour.
It followed a €6.1 million judgment in May last year against the developer.