One-time millionaire Cullen faces selling property to pay €8.2m debt

Former The Apprentice star Bill Cullen has consented to a €8.2m judgment being entered against him at the Commercial Court.

The court heard a planned sale of property belonging to the one-time millionaire would help to reduce the amount owed to Danske Bank.

The case arose from an €8.1m loan advanced to Mr Cullen in Apr 2011 to restructure a loan. That facility was to be repaid in full by Apr 2012 but the bank claimed no repayments were made by Mr Cullen since Nov 2011.

The bank said it had been trying to work with Mr Cullen, of Osberstown House, Sallins, Co Kildare, since Feb 2012 to achieve a solution but issued the proceedings last month after it became clear that a negotiated restructuring of his obligations would not be possible.

The bank’s application also comes after receivers were appointed by Ulster Bank last month over Mr Cullen’s Glencullen Holdings, which operates car dealerships in Swords and Liffey Valley in Dublin.

Ulster Bank is owed €12m, while Mr Cullen, owed €19.5m, is Glencullen’s biggest creditor. He lost the Renault dealership last August, having held the national franchise from 1986 to 2007.

In its action, Danske Bank said the €8.1m was secured by mortgages over the Antrim Arms guesthouse at Upper Drumcondra Rd, Dublin, and assignment of a lease on property at Upper Drumcondra Rd with annual rental income of €180,000 to Citygate Motors Airside. Rental payments under the lease were guaranteed by Glencullen.

In another affidavit, a summons server detailed attempts to serve the proceedings on Mr Cullen at his home last month.

Osberstown is walled in and has electric access gates. When he first tried to effect service, there was no response when he rang the intercom.

The next morning, the intercom was answered by a woman who kept saying she could not hear him. When he rang again, the intercom was answered by a man he believed to be Mr Cullen but who kept saying he could not hear.