MORIARTY TRIBUNAL:THE MORIARTY tribunal was told a letter has been disclosed to it containing a lengthy narrative of certain events that is "wholly at variance" with evidence already heard.
The letter, from solicitors acting for Northern Ireland businessman Kevin Phelan, concerns property dealings in the UK in the late 1990s in which he was involved.
Others involved in the deals, in Cheadle, Mansfield and Doncaster, included the businessman Denis O’Brien, his then accountant Aidan Phelan, and the former government minister Michael Lowry.
The tribunal has been told in evidence that Mr O’Brien was involved in the Doncaster deal and that Mr Lowry was not: and that Mr Lowry was involved in the Mansfield and Cheadle deals, but that Mr O’Brien was not.
The content of the letter from Kevin Phelan was not disclosed yesterday.
Tribunal counsel John Coughlan SC said it would not be appropriate to do so at this stage, as the content might “gain currency” in the public domain before evidence could be heard in relation to it.
The letter was disclosed to the tribunal by AL Goodbody, acting for Aidan Phelan, after the tribunal had written to the firm seeking copies of all correspondence between Aidan Phelan and Kevin Phelan.
The tribunal has since written to the law firm stating that the letter should have been disclosed earlier as it was clearly relevant to inquiries being conducted by the tribunal.
The firm has told the tribunal that Aidan Phelan had decided the correspondence with Kevin Phelan was “vexatious” and not relevant to the tribunal.
Mr Coughlan said a letter dated March 22nd, 2002, from Woodcock solicitors in the UK, acting for Kevin Phelan, contained a lengthy narrative “wholly at variance with evidence both before and since that date and given to the tribunal concerning the Doncaster, Mansfield and Cheadle transactions”.
He said the letter had to be treated with caution as Kevin Phelan, who lives outside the jurisdiction, had not acceded to requests to come and give evidence.
Mr Phelan acted as a land agent in all of the property deals.
Solicitors acting for him have written to the tribunal saying he no longer stands over everything written in the letter, Mr Coughlan said.
The letter also refers to alleged meetings that have not previously been disclosed to the tribunal, Mr Coughlan said.
These are: a meeting allegedly set up by Aidan Phelan and which involved him, Kevin Phelan and Michael Lowry, at Aidan Phelan’s Dublin offices, on December 12th, 1997; and another alleged meeting at Mr Lowry’s apartment and involving Mr Lowry, Kevin Phelan and Aidan Phelan, in March of 1998.
The tribunal has written to Mr O’Brien seeking copies of correspondence held by him and involving Kevin Phelan. He has said he has no memory of any such correspondence. Mr Lowry, when similarly asked, has said he has no record of any such correspondence.
Aidan Phelan, who lives abroad, has told the tribunal he would be available to give evidence on the matter on July 31st.
The tribunal is also seeking to call Mr Phelan’s former business partner, Helen Malone, and an English solicitor, Martin Griffiths. Mr Griffiths works for a firm, DLA Piper, which acted for Mr Phelan during his brief correspondence with Kevin Phelan’s solicitors.
The tribunal was told that the March 2002 letter referred to a number of enclosures which have not been disclosed to the tribunal. It has been told the documents, which it had been believed might be with the archiving service of DLA Piper, now appear to be missing.
The tribunal sits again today to hear evidence on a different matter.