‘Lawlor received proceeds despite lack of input’
Under repeated questioning, Mr Lawlor also finally accepted he was the holder of a Liechtenstein bank account into which the Baldoyle money was paid. The Planning Tribunal is expected to decide shortly if it will refer the disgraced former TD to the High Court to adjudicate on whether he has co-operated with the latest stage of its four-year investigation into his financial affairs.
Any decision by the tribunal to refer the matter to the High Court would increase the prospect of Mr Lawlor being sent back to jail for an unprecedented fourth term.
He has already spent a total of six weeks in Mountjoy Prison as a result of three previous failures to co-operate with the tribunal.
The retired politician was accused by tribunal lawyers yesterday of providing the inquiry with a false paper trail to disguise the true nature of large payments to offshore accounts for legal purposes.
The tribunal has suggested that £690,000 paid into a Liechtenstein bank account, which Mr Lawlor claims were loans advanced to help him out of financial difficulties, was more likely to be the proceeds of sales of property in Ireland.
Mr Lawlor contested remarks by tribunal barrister, Des O’Neill that the £690,000 could not be viewed as a normal loan as the former TD was never expected to repay the money. He also took exception to any suggestion he was changing his evidence when certain documents questioned some of the answers he had already given to the tribunal.
Mr Lawlor hotly disputed the tribunal’s claims he had still failed to account for the origin of millions of euro held in bank accounts.
Yesterday’s hearing was dominated by complex, lengthy and detailed questioning of various transactions involving the transfer of large sums of money to offshore accounts held for the benefit of Mr Lawlor.
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