Northern businessman was due £225,000 in fees

A Northern Ireland businessman was to get £225,000 sterling in fees from two property deals worth approximately £800,000 sterling in total, the tribunal was told.

Counsel for the tribunal Jerry Healy SC questioned whether there was any commercial reality to the agreement on fees negotiated through Denis O'Connor, an accountant and adviser to Michael Lowry, with Omagh-based businessman Kevin Phelan.

The agreement was negotiated in 2001 in relation to properties in Mansfield and Cheadle owned by Mr Lowry and Denis O'Brien's former accountant, Aidan Phelan (no relation to Kevin Phelan).

Mr O'Connor agreed that the deal involved a high level of fees. "All I was doing was negotiating between the parties." He said Mr Lowry was appraised of the agreement and agreed.

He said the problem was the deal that had been negotiated with Kevin Phelan some years earlier. This entailed him getting 40 per cent of any profits arising from the sale of the properties.

In the event the 2001 agreement negotiated by Mr O'Connor never went ahead, as the sale of the properties was a condition of the agreement and never occurred.

Mr O'Connor, who is helping Mr Lowry in his dealings with the tribunal, said that when originally briefed about the English properties, he was not told that Kevin Phelan had a right to 40 per cent of any profits arising from the property deals.

Mr O'Connor gave evidence of contacts with Kevin Phelan in 2001 and 2002 in relation to the Cheadle and Mansfield properties and also in relation to a property deal in Doncaster.

The tribunal has been told the latter had nothing to do with Mr Lowry and is owned by Mr O'Brien.

Mr Healy asked Mr O'Connor about a letter from Mr Phelan's solicitors to William Fry concerning disputes Mr Phelan had and which mentioned a meeting in the offices of Mr Phelan's solicitors in England. Mr O'Connor said he had attended a meeting with the solicitors and Mr Phelan, as mentioned in the letter.

The letter outlined a number of issues that were complicating the attempt to reach an agreement with Mr Phelan.

It read in part: "The terms of the draft letters and draft agreements were not satisfactory to Michael Lowry and Denis O'Connor." Mr O'Connor said he had no idea what this was about. Mr Lowry was not discussed in relation to the Doncaster project, he said.