Lynch account of €25m loan not ‘credible’

ASKING the Commercial Court to accept claims by businessman Philip Lynch and his family that they would have walked away from a land deal had they believed they could be pursued individually for the €25 million loan involved “a very big ask,” a judge was told yesterday.

The Lynch family’s account of circumstances leading to their signing up on February 8, 2007 to a €25m Allied Irish Bank (AIB) loan with developer Gerry Conlan for the land deal in Waterford was not credible and contained “glaring omissions” and “multiple inconsistencies”, Paul Sreenan SC, for LK Shields Solicitors, argued.

Counsel was making closing submissions for LK Shields which, along with AIB and another law firm, Matheson Ormsby Prentice (MOPs), is being sued by Mr Lynch, his wife Eileen and four children in an effort to avoid AIB pursuing them over the €25m loan to buy development lands in Waterford.