Missing solicitor’s wife tells court she met him in Bulgaria

THE wife of missing solicitor Michael Lynn has told the High Court she remains in touch with her husband and last saw him just over a week ago in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

Ms Brid Murphy said she knows where her husband is, that he had collected her at the airport in Sofia from where she left on Monday week last and that he went to Portugal the following day. She remains married to Mr Lynn, she added.

Proceedings opened yesterday aimed at establishing entitlement to the €4.7 million proceeds of the sale last January of Glenlion House, Howth, the subject of alleged multiple mortgages by Mr Lynn.

Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan has been asked to first determine Ms Murphy’s claim that she is entitled to a 50% interest in the house.

Glenlion House was sold at auction for €4.9m last January to meet some of Mr Lynn’s estimated €80m debts. He was struck off the roll of solicitors by court order last week and was also fined €2m.

Ms Murphy and a number of banks have made claims over the proceeds of sale of Glenlion, which amount to some €4.7m after the estimated €200,000 costs of sale are deducted. The house was purchased by Mr Lynn and Ms Murphy for €5.5m in Spring 2007.

Ms Murphy denies she has any liability for multi-million loans given by ACC Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society for the Glenlion purchase as she says she was unaware of such loans until last autumn, when matters concerning her husband’s practice were exposed. She accepts an indebtedness to Bank of Scotland Ireland, her counsel James Dwyer SC said.

ACC secured judgment for €3.76m against Mr Lynn last November in relation to loans granted for the property and claims it has a first legal mortgage over the property, giving it priority over claims by INBS and BOSI. Ms Murphy told the court that, when she married her husband in April 2006 having gone out with him since 2004, he was a solicitor with his own practice and property company and she trusted him completely in relation to financial affairs, including dealings with Glenlion.

She had worked as a nurse earning €46,000 a year before their marriage but gave up work in early 2006.

She had left all financial dealings about Glenlion to her husband and was more concerned at the time of those dealings with health problems, she said. During a medical examination in February 2007 for life assurance connected with the purchase, a lump was discovered in her breast and she had to undergo a biopsy which ultimately produced good results.

Ms Murphy became upset at stages during her evidence and at one point asked counsel for ACC to understand she was not used to such surroundings. She said she had no involvement with her husband’s business and had never been involved in any property transaction prior to Glenlion. She also requested a short break because she felt hot.

Ms Murphy is claiming that several signatures purporting to be hers on a number of documents related to securing finance for that purchase from ACC Bank were forged. She claims she believed at the time the only loan on the house was one with Bank of Scotland Ireland and says she did sign a loan offer document from BOSI related to Glenlion.

The court heard that a documents expert has produced a report stating that certain signatures on loan documents relating to Glenlion which purport to be Ms Murphy’s are not her signatures. In cross-examination yesterday, Ms Murphy was not challenged about her claims in that regard by counsel for ACC.

The case continues.