FIANNA FÁIL national executive member Jerry Beades was told by a judge yesterday he should “face the reality” of a €1.5 million debt owed to a bank by one of his companies.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly had ruled last week that a receiver appointed by ACCBank was entitled to orders for possession of certain premises on Richmond Road, Fairview, Dublin, against Fairlee Properties over non-payment of the €1.5 million debt. Mr Beades is a director of Fairlee.
The judge adjourned the making of those orders until yesterday to allow 16 individuals and companies, said to be in occupation of those properties, to be notified about the impending orders and, if they wished, to be heard.
The court heard yesterday the 16 had been served but none had appeared in court. Two individuals had filed affidavits stating they were in occupation of offices in Richmond Business Centre and paying rent.
After reading the affidavits, Mr Justice Kelly said whatever interest those two individuals had in the properties, this was no bar to the receiver taking possession.
There was also an obligation on persons taking an interest in the property to ensure the landlord was entitled to allow them to do so when the written consent of the bank was required, he said.
The position was that Fairlee still owed €1.5 million to the bank, the receiver was validly appointed and no defence to the demand for possession had been demonstrated by Fairlee, the judge said.
He made orders requiring the premises at 158-162 Richmond Road and at 6 Tivoli Centre, also Richmond Road, be delivered up to the receiver.
At that point, Mr Beades came into court, asked the judge if he could address him and apologised for being late. Mr Justice Kelly told him he could not do so because he had no entitlement under law to represent Fairlee.
Despite having no such entitlement, the judge said he had allowed Mr Beades to be heard last week and had given him “a full hearing”. Mr Beades asked for a stay on the order but Mr Justice Kelly repeated he had no entitlement to appear on behalf of Fairlee. “You owe €1.5 million to the bank and that is the reality of the situation and the sooner you face up to that the better,” he said.
Mr Beades replied: “This bank has been guilty of serious irregularities and I am a victim of that”.
The judge he was not going to conduct a rehearing.