Developer believed to be in debt to banks for €2bn

PROPERTY developer Liam Carroll, who is personally being sued for €60 million over loans from Irish Nationwide Building Society, is believed to be in debt to banks to the tune of more than €2 billion.

He is also among a group of developers facing a €150m claim in the Commercial Court by the owner of the Square shopping centre in Tallaght.

It is thought that knowing Mr Carroll is facing court action over that debt and the massive monies owed to a range of financial institutions, INBS has struck first to ensure it could recoup the €60m owed to it.

Among the other banks that have backed him is Anglo Irish Bank, whose proposed new headquarters at North Wall Quay he is supposed to be developing but for which planning permission has not been received.

Yesterday in the High Court, INBS’s proceedings against Mr Carroll and his company Aifca, Upper Mount Street, Dublin, were admitted to the Commercial Court. It emerged during yesterday’s hearing that Mr Carroll allegedly told former INBS chief executive Michael Fingleton in late 2008 that he could deal with €30m of the guarantee in 2009 and had also confirmed Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Scotland (Ireland) had the largest exposure arising from his developments.

A statement of affairs for Mr Carroll and his wife, Roisin, at October 31, 2008, supplied to INBS had shown assets of €259.5m, bank debt of some €149m, annual rental income of €9.85m and annual interest of €7.9m.

The judge fixed the INBS application for summary judgment for the amounts sought for hearing July 17.