Judgment reserved on order in Fitzpatrick loan dispute

A dispute over whether a £250,000 loan from Anglo Irish Bank to its former chairman Seán FitzPatrick must be repaid by a former Anglo employee has come before the High Court.

Mr FitzPatrick has claimed that in late 2006 he invested £250,000 in the Woolgate Exchange office property to give “a chance of money” to Mark Redmond, then aged 24, “a bright young kid” from Tallaght who had joined Anglo in 2000 from school. Mr Redmond could have made thousands “or nothing, which is what it turned out to be”, Mr FitzPatrick said.

Both Mr FitzPatrick and Mr Redmond denied claims the £250,000 sum was a “loan” from Mr FitzPatrick to Mr Redmond which must now be repaid by Mr Redmond into Mr FitzPatrick’s estate following his adjudication as a bankrupt.

The official assignee in bankruptcy, Chris Lehane, yesterday sought orders requring Mr Redmond to pay the sum and Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne reserved her decision on the application.

Arising from a court examination last March of Mr FitzPatrick and Mr Redmond about the £250,000 sum, Kenneth Bredin, for Mr Lehane, argued yesterday it was clear Mr Redmond was indebted to Mr FitzPatrick for some £285,000, including interest, arising from the Woolgate investment.

It was not disputed that Mr FitzPatrick had in November 2006 opened an account to fund the £250,000 Woolgate investment, which followed on from an earlier investment by him of some £1 million in the same property, Mr Bredin said.

Dermot Cahill, for Mr Redmond, argued that the court should not grant the order sought and instead give his side an opportunity to adduce further evidence concerning the arrangement.

While two loans were advanced to Mr FitzPatrick for Woolgate, the first for £1 million and the second for £250,000, Mr Cahill said he did not know who authorised their drawdown or what conversation or documents were associated with them.

While Mr Bredin argued it was “inconceivable” Mr FitzPatrick would have given “a risk-free gift” to Mr Redmond, that was the only way this transaction could have happened, given Mr Redmond’s circumstances at the time. Mr Redmond was then aged 24, had “no asssets worth the name” and did not have £250,000 to invest in “speculative property investments”.

Mr FitzPatrick, with estimated debts of €150 million and assets of €47 million, was declared bankrupt in July 2010. He and Mr Redmond were examined about two London property investments organised by property company D2 Private- Woolgate and a Victoria investment — as part of efforts to establish the extent of Mr FitzPatrick’s estate.

The £250,000 Anglo loan for the Woolgate investment has been paid off by Anglo from some €10 million taken by the bank from deposit accounts held by Mr FitzPatrick and his wife with the bank.