Ex investor describes property scheme as ‘scam’

A multi-million euro property investment scheme run by a Co Wexford-based accountant during the boom years has been described as a “scam” by a former investor.

However a sitting of a Chartered Accountants Disciplinary Board (Carb) tribunal was told today that the accountant, Alan Hynes, a former director of Tuskar Asset Management, would say in evidence would be that there was no scam.

No evidence of any scam had been so far presented to the tribunal, barrister Alan Cormack said on behalf of Mr Hynes.

Oral surgeon Darren McCourt, of Strabane, Co Tyrone, told the tribunal he had signed a power of attorney document in February, 2006, but had not understood that it would be used when signing guarantees for banks in relation to the taking out of loans.

“I didn’t realise the significance of it. I didn’t understand the mechanism. This was part of the scam,” he told the tribunal on its sixth day of hearings.

He said he thought he was investing money in an apartment development at the Laurels, Dundrum, Dublin, and that he would end up with three apartments at “near build price” on which there would be mortgages.

The deal he had discussed with Mr Hynes on the telephone and the agreements with the banks that were entered into by Mr Hynes were totally disconnected and Mr Hynes had no authority to do what he did, Mr McCourt said.

Mr Cormack said there would be evidence to the tribunal from Dublin dentist Colm Sugrue to the effect that the details of the Dundrum project were explained to Mr McCourt, by Mr Sugrue.

Mr McCourt said he had no memory of this and that he received no documents about the deal from Mr Hynes, Seamus Maguire and Co, solicitors, who acted for the property investments, or the bank from which loans were arranged.

Mr Cormack said that Mr McCourt was a professional man and that by signing the power of attorney he had given “carte blanche” to others to enter into various commitments.

Mr McCourt said he accepted his responsibility but said there was also a duty of care on Mr Hynes and that he, Mr Hynes, had not supplied him with the documents that existed in relation to the loans.

Mr Cormack said the witness was trying to make Mr Hynes a “convenient scapegoat” for an investment that had not been successful. Mr McCourt said he did not accept that.

He told the tribunal he first became involved with Mr Hynes by way of Mr Sugrue, who was a friend of Mr Hynes. He had subsequently invested € 100,000 in a proposed development in Maynooth, Co Kildare. At one stage he attended a meeting in the Stillorgan Park Hotel where he and three other dentists were presented with bank documentation by Mr Sugrue and which they signed. Mr McCourt’s signature was witnessed by a receptionist at the hotel, while another signature was witnessed by a security officer in the lobby, Mr McCourt said.

He said he believed at the time that Mr Segrue was helping out his friend with some administrative work because Mr Hynes lived in Wexford and the documentation needed to be signed urgently by investors based in Dublin.

Later, when he sought to get his money back, he was urged by Mr Hynes to allow the money be put into a new vehicle, Tuskar Asset Management. At one stage, he said, Mr Sugrue called him on the phone to say the Tuskar deal was a good deal. “I decided I would roll with it.” In 2007 he received share certificates in the post, the first documents he had received since his investment in the proposed Maynooth development in January 2005.

The hearing continues.