O’Brien aided Cheshire deal

THE Moriarty Report has found that Michael Lowry linked up with businessman Denis O’Brien in securing a property at Cheadle, Cheshire.

Following disclosure by Investec bank that Woodchester Bank — whose banking business it took over in 2000 — had provided stg£420,000 to fund the purchase, Mr O’Brien and Mr Lowry were both linked to the deal.

The report outlines how the transaction also involved Aidan Phelan, a business associate of Mr O’Brien’s who played a role in the Mansfield property deal and the Carysfort transaction.

The Cheadle deal also involved the services of Northampton solicitor Christopher Vaughan.

The tribunal report outlines how the “confusing” transaction became murkier with each disclosure. For example, Mr Vaughan had been acting on instructions and provided the tribunal with what were initially accepted as the relevant material regarding the Mansfield and Cheadle deals.

Yet he was unwilling to give evidence, while Investec said the relevant bank loan file had gone missing. It later transpired that documentation passed to the tribunal had been falsified, including versions of letters from Mr Vaughan that sought to remove references to Mr Lowry’s involvement and his “continuing role and beneficial interest in the Cheadle transaction”.

The report outlines how Mr Lowry and his daughter became directors of a British “shelf” company called Catclause in June 1999. Having sought finance for the deal, he found himself owing the balance of the purchase price in 1999.

This was secured with the help of Mr O’Brien’s friend Mr Phelan, who contacted Michael Tunney in Woodchester to secure a loan. Mr Phelan and Mr O’Brien were also clients of Mr Tunney.

It was described in December 1999 by Mr Tunney as “a proposed ‘Denis O’Brien transaction’,” involving Mr Phelan, “high-net worth individual” John Daly, a Cork businessman and friend of Mr Lowry, as possible guarantor.

The loan was made to Catclause but was registered to Mr Vaughan and his wife as trustees, while Mr Daly backed out as guarantor in 2000 and it transpired that Mr Vaughan was acting as trustee for Mr Phelan.

Mr O’Brien denied knowledge of the deal but the report found his evidence “unconvincing”.

It finds Mr Phelan’s evidence “implausible” and that the stg£420,000 lodged on December 21, 1999, to Mr Vaughan’s account was a loan from Woodchester/Investec, sourced by Mr Phelan, through the support of Mr O’Brien.