Pensioner slept in car after nephew made him homeless

A 73-YEAR-OLD Ennis pensioner made homeless by his nephew in January was last night back in the family home.

This followed Judge Donagh McDonagh yesterday ordering Paul Cleary at Ennis Circuit Court to vacate 62 Marian Avenue, Ennis and hand the keys back to his uncle, John Mulkerrins Jnr, forthwith.

Since being made homeless in January after Mr Cleary locked him out and changed the locks, Mr Mulkerrins — who suffers from a heart condition and diabetes — has been sleeping in a car and local B&B.

Judge McDonagh said: “I don’t think an elderly man should be kept out of a home he has lived in all his life.”

As he yesterday placed Mr Cleary’s possessions, including family photos, out of the house for delivery to his nephew, Mr Mulkerrins said: “I am very glad to be back here.”

Hours earlier, Judge McDonagh granted an interim injunction to Mr Mulkerrins to restrain Mr Cleary from occupying the home and from excluding Mr Mulkerrins from the house and to hand over the keys.

Before moving into the home in January, Mr Cleary, who also has an address at Shanaway East, Dunsallagh, Miltown Malbay, mortgaged the house for €216,000 and now owes €239,000, being €29,000 in arrears with Smart Mortgages Ltd, seeking re-possession of the home.

Counsel for Mr Mulkerrins, Lorcan Connolly BL, told the court that Mr Mulkerrins had lived at the home for the past 55 years.

Mr Connolly told Judge McDonagh that Mr Mulkerrins’s lifelong possessions remained in the home and they included all his medication for his heart condition and diabetes.

Mr Connolly said that Mr Cleary secured title to the home after accompanying Mr Mulkerrins’s father, the late John Mulkerrins Snr — then aged 96 — to a solicitor’s office in Ennis in January 2008 where Mr Mulkerrins Snr signed over the house to Mr Cleary for no consideration.

Mr Connolly said: “This was done without the knowledge of Mr Cleary’s mother, Mary Cleary and Mr Mulkerrins Jnr. It came as much of a surprise to Mrs Cleary, as it did to my client, that Mr Cleary had done this.”

The case was adjourned until next Friday at Ennis Circuit Court.