Mr George Redmond was repaid only £10,000 of £110,000 in loans he gave to two businessmen in 1980, the tribunal heard.
Mr Redmond had lent £40,000 jointly to a turf accountant, Mr Malachy Skelly, and a publican, Mr Jim Kennedy, early that year. Later the same year he lent Mr Kennedy £70,000.
For a few years following that, Mr Redmond collected interest payments in cash every week from Mr Kennedy's gaming arcade in Westmoreland Street in Dublin city centre. However, Mr Kennedy became "incommunicado" in the mid-1980s, according to Mr Redmond.
Mr Skelly, with whom Mr Kennedy had been in "acrimonious litigation" in the meantime, called to Mr Redmond's home eventually and gave him £10,000 in cash, believing it to be his share of the outstanding debt.
However, Mr Kennedy never repaid any of the outstanding capital on either loan. Mr Redmond said neither of the loans was subject to a written agreement or a formal schedule of repayments.
Mr Kennedy at that time owned gaming premises in Westmoreland Street and was looking for other premises with licences. He found one in Clondalkin, and Mr Redmond said he believed that was the reason Mr Kennedy needed the loan. On Friday he denied the loan was an investment in a stud farm in Lucan which more than doubled in value after it was rezoned in the early 1980s.
Mr Redmond acknowledged the loan arrangement was unusual. "I was dependent on him [Mr Kennedy], there's no question about that. Looking back, it seems an extraordinary thing to do, but he was very congenial, very persuasive." He felt sure Mr Skelly wouldn't dishonour a loan as he was "a bookmaker of national repute".
Mr Redmond said it was originally his idea to lend Mr Skelly and Mr Kennedy money. "I heard them discussing money and I volunteered," he said.
Mr Justice Flood said he found it difficult to believe Mr Redmond placed such trust in "a bookie and a gaming-house keeper". He also doubted that Mr Redmond would not remember the details of the transaction.
"Are you seriously asking me to believe . . . you do not recollect the rate of interest?"
Mr Redmond replied that he was "more than anxious to be helpful". However, all he could say about the interest rate was that it was "in the region of 15 per cent" and was "generous".
