Quinlan ordered to repay bank €6.5m

DEVELOPER Derek Quinlan has been ordered by the Commercial Court to repay €6.5 million to Bank of Scotland.

That amount is part of some €25m that he and others have been ordered to repay arising from the €180m purchase of the Bank of Ireland headquarters at Baggot Street in Dublin.

Mr Quinlan did not seek to defend the claim yesterday, but the proceedings against several other businessmen have been adjourned to February.

Three of those are now said to be living in London, but Irish addresses were provided for them in the court documents.

They are: Patrick Shovlin, Turnberry, Kerrymount Avenue, Foxrock, Co Dublin; Patrick Fitzpatrick, Dargle Lodge, Cookstown, Enniskerry, Co Wicklow; and Anthony Fitzpatrick, Trethorpe, Brennanstown Road, Cabinteely, Co Dublin.

The bank is claiming summary judgment for €7.4m against Mr Shovlin, and €3.7m each against Patrick Fitzpatrick and Anthony Fitzpatrick.

The bank has also sued Ronan O’Caoimh, of Glencarrig House, Delgany, Co Wicklow, for €1.4m; Patrick Mooney, Celbridge Road, Maynooth, Co Kildare for €1.49m; and Peter Lavelle, Crosellis Square, St Margarets, Twickenham, London, for €483,696.

The judge agreed to enter summary judgment against Mr Quinlan, with an address at Manfred Road, London.

The judge said he was satisfied the proceedings were properly served on Mr Quinlan through the borrower’s agent, Thomas Dowd of Avestus Capital Partners (successor to Quinlan Private), and the bank was entitled to judgment against Mr Quinlan in the amount of €6,710,064.

Summary judgment for €827,859 was also entered on consent against NBH Investments Ltd, (formerly Gowan Securities Ltd), with registered offices at Herbert Avenue, Merrion Road, Dublin 4.

The case arose from loans of some €180m issued by Bank of Scotland, as agent for a syndicate of other lenders, to a number of borrowers in 2006 to buy the Bank of Ireland premises.

Quinlan Private acted as the borrower’s agent for the purposes of the loan agreement.

The agreement provided that recourse to the borrowers, subject to stated exceptions, was limited principally to the Bank of Ireland property itself. The agreements also provided, if the value of the property was insufficient to meet the borrowing, there was no further recourse to the borrowers.

Bank of Scotland claims, notwithstanding the general limited recourse provided for under the loan agreement, the loan agreement provided for certain recourse to the borrowers and their assets.

It claims entitlement to recourse for each borrower’s proportion of interest payable on the loan facilities, and also to the recourse amount as identified by each borrower’s agent as defined in the loan agreement, with the total recourse sum being €25m.

The bank said about €183m was due under the loan agreement last June.

Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday transferred the case to the Commercial Court.