Dunlop forgot about £62,000 horse buy
He never saw the unnamed animal and didn’t get the ownership papers. Mr Bolger told him later the horse had died, breaking its neck in a collision with another horse.
As the horse was bred by him from one of his own mares, Mr Bolger said there was no documentation relating to the horse and he also owned the sire of the horse.
Records show Mr Dunlop withdrew £40,000 from an offshore account in Jersey in March 1992 and had it lodged to Mr Bolger’s bank account in Newbridge. A second payment of £23,917 was made in May 1992.
When the tribunal first asked Mr Dunlop, he could shed no light on the transaction and he wrote to Mr Bolger’s solicitors in November 2000 asking the purpose of the £23,917 payment.
He said yesterday he knew there had been “transactions” the details of which he could not recollect.
Pressed by tribunal lawyer Patricia Dillon SC whether he had given £40,000 to Mr Bolger for “onward transmission” to someone else, Mr Dunlop declared there was “no way” he’d have done that.
The exchange prompted tribunal chairman Judge Alan Mahon to remark: “Mr Dunlop, in today’s money you are probably talking about spending the equivalent of €200,000 — and you are telling the tribunal you have no recollection?”
Judge Mahon added it would be a phenomenally expensive horse to buy, either today or in the early 1990s.
The chairman said this was a massive investment by Mr Dunlop, probably the price of a house in Dublin, and by all accounts had no insurance attached to it.
Judge Mahon said: “In financial terms, it must have been one of the most shocking events of your life?”
Mr Dunlop: “Not really.”
Judge Gerald Keys said Mr Bolger nominated the price — he could have said £100,000 — and there was no bargaining and that sounded a little naive.
Mr Dunlop said the point was this was a man he knew and he accepted Mr Bolger’s recommendation.
Earlier, Mr Dunlop related how Mr Bolger recommended or had asked him did he want to become involved in a horse — “do you want to have participation in a horse or do you want to own part of a horse?”.
Ms Dillon: “So what did you buy, a horse or a part of a horse, Mr Dunlop?”
“That I cannot tell you. I bought — I trusted Mr Bolger, he told me that he had an animal or was recommending an animal or a foal, I can’t remember to be precise, sorry about this, but I asked him what the price was and he told me what the price was, I gave him the money.”
During a private interview with the tribunal, Mr Dunlop said Mr Bolger needed a £12,500 loan and when queried on this yesterday Mr Dunlop said this was “inaccurate”.
But Judge Mahon said what Mr Dunlop then told the tribunal was a completely made up story.
Mr Dunlop said he could not envisage any circumstances when he would have loaned any money to Mr Bolger.
Documents shown to the tribunal revealed a note recording an asset of Mr Dunlop valued at £20,000 to “Jim B”. Mr Dunlop had also told AIB he had a share in a horse worth £22,000. Mr Dunlop explained the logic of that was he had given the £40,00 to Mr Bolger for something else.
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