Lawlor accused of attempted blackmail

DEVELOPER Tom Gilmartin yesterday accused former Dublin West TD Liam Lawlor of attempting to blackmail a British property company into taking him on as a consultant.

On the second day of his evidence to the Mahon Tribunal, the Sligo-born businessman claimed that Mr Lawlor had arrived unannounced and uninvited at a meeting of Arlington plc in London and had forced the company into accepting him as a consultant for a property project in London.

Mr Gilmartin was outlining the circumstances surrounding the proposed development of a huge retail complex in Bachelors Walk in Dublin in 1987 and 1988.

Describing Mr Lawlor as a "hustler", Mr Gilmartin claimed that Mr Lawlor had told senior executives of Arlington that he was appointed by the Government to look after the Bachelors Walk project and that "his involvement would make a difference of it getting off the ground [or not]".

Mr Gilmartin told the tribunal in direct evidence that, in mid-1988, he had become interested in developing a site in Quarryvale, West Dublin (now the location of the Liffey Valley shopping centre).

He said that, in May 1988, he visited his bank manager and asked him did he know any landowners in the area. The manager directed him, he said, to a man at the public counter called Brendan Fassnidge, a garage owner from Palmerstown. Mr Fassnidge gave evidence during George Redmond's recent criminal trial of making payments to the former Dublin County Council assistant manager in return for a planning favour.

According to Mr Gilmartin, Mr Fassnidge arranged for him to meet Liam Lawlor that evening. Two days later, Mr Gilmartin claimed that, to his embarrassment, Mr Lawlor turned up at the Arlington meeting, and demanded to be taken on as a consultant to the project. He also claimed that Mr Lawlor had demanded £100,000 up front as well as half of Mr Gilmartin's 20% share of the profits. Arlington agreed to pay him £3,500 per month.

"That man is an effing hustler," Mr Gilmartin said he remarked to another executive at the meeting.

Earlier, Mr Gilmartin gave evidence of lobbying then Environment Minister Padraig Flynn, as well as then Finance Minister Ray MacSharry and then Labour Minister Bertie Ahern for more favourable tax status for the Bachelors Walk site.

However, he said that, when it became public that the tax designated area had been extended and that Arlington was assembling properties along the North Quays, it spelled the "death knell" for the project.

"Shadowy figures appeared and tried to buy the properties that were already on offer to us and began to sell them back to us at ransom prices," he said.