Ex-insurance broker loses bid to force IBRC to repay €500k

A retired insurance broker, who lost €500,000 in a property bond deal with Anglo Irish Assurance Co in Jan 2006, has lost a High Court bid to force the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), formerly Anglo, to pay it back to him.

Mr Justice John Hedigan said Hugh Governey, of Palmerston Rd, Dublin 6, put the money in a property-based fund promoted by Anglo Irish Assurance Co as a highly geared investment scheme in the Kennet Shopping Centre, Newbury, England.

The investment had failed because another shopping centre, the Parkway, had attracted lucrative tenants away from the Kennet centre. Mr Governey had made a complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman.