O’Brien snr hired Lowry accountant to get information on property

THE 76-year-old father of telecoms billionaire Denis O’Brien enlisted Michael Lowry’s accountant to get information from his own solicitor about an English property, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

Accountant Denis O’Connor said businessman Denis O’Brien senior asked him in spring-summer 2002 to contact Christopher Vaughan, a solicitor based in Northampton, who handled the Doncaster Rovers football club transaction.

Explaining why he had been asked to make the contact, Mr O’Connor said Mr O’Brien snr told him Mr Vaughan would not know who he himself was.

Mr O’Connor had previously offered his services to the veteran businessman to help resolve an ongoing dispute over fees sought by British-based property agent Kevin Phelan for sourcing the Doncaster project.

O’Brien family interests acquired the football property in August 1998 for £4.3 million (€6.4m). Kevin Phelan had provided Isle of Man shelf company Westferry Ltd, used as the purchase vehicle. Beneficial ownership was transferred, by way of a discretionary trust, to the O’Briens.

Mr Lowry — the Independent TD for Tipperary North — had been Minister for Communications in May 1996, when Mr O’Brien’s Esat Digifone consortium was awarded the licence to set up the country’s second mobile phone network.

The tribunal is investigating whether Mr Lowry and Mr O’Brien had a business relationship linked to the Doncaster project. Both men deny such relationship a existed.

Yesterday, Mr O’Connor repeated that Mr Lowry never had any material or financial interest in Doncaster Rovers. He told tribunal chairman Mr Justice Michael Moriarty: “I have the absolute belief he (Lowry) had nothing to do with it.”

Mr O’Connor described how the former Communications Minister told him to “do anything I could to try and settle the fees issue with Kevin Phelan”.

The fees related to property projects at Cheadle and Mansfield in which Mr Lowry had an interest.

In the case of Mansfield, Mr Lowry was a minority business partner with Aidan Phelan, who at the time was a long-time financial adviser to Denis O’Brien. Aidan Phelan is not related to Kevin Phelan.

Tribunal lawyer Jerry Healy SC recalled how Kevin Phelan was to receive £225,000 (€331,208) out of the sale of Cheadle and Mansfield properties.

Mr O’Connor accepted that Mr Lowry had agreed to this level of fees. The properties were valued at over £800,000 (€1.1m), but the deals never went through.

Mr Healy said the level of these fees seemed to have no basis in commercial reality. The sale of the properties was one thing; the taking of fees was another.

Mr O’Connor agreed the level of fees was high, but pointed out what he was doing was negotiating between parties.

“I had no vested interest... it failed; life went on for me,” he said.