Councillor left Ireland due to affair, says developer

A property millionaire alleged to have made corrupt payments to a councillor told gardaí the councillor left the country in 2007 because he had “an affair with a young one” and not because of a Garda investigation, a court has heard.

The statement was made by Michael Ryan, aged 60, of The Sweepstakes, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4, who denies three charges of corrupt payments totalling €80,000 to then councillor Fred Forsey Jr in 2006.

They are alleged to have been made in relation to a 32-hectare piece of land outside Dungarvan which Mr Ryan wanted rezoned from agricultural use to industrial and residential use.

His trial heard yesterday that Mr Ryan was arrested on Aug 16, 2009, and interviewed five times that evening.

Mr Ryan told gardaí during those interviews that he did not know how much he was worth, although he agreed he was a millionaire and at the “higher end” of the property business.

Among his interests were a business park in Enfield; 400 sites, houses, and apartments in Dublin; investment property in England; a unit at the Red Cow Roundabout, Dublin; a site on the N11; a chemist shop; and “bits and pieces” in Dungarvan. He was a builder and stud farm owner and also made films, he said, and had been involved in building for 30 years.

He loaned €80,000 in three sums to Mr Forsey in 2006 when Mr Forsey told him about buying two properties, which he intended to sell on, off the plans.

Asked by gardaí why he lent money to Mr Forsey he replied: “He asked.”

He also said he loaned or guaranteed loans for seven or eight people but not everyone had repaid him and he would be a “bad banker”. Mr Forsey left the country in 2007 and never paid back any of the money.

Mr Ryan told the gardaí he was “amazed” to get a call from Mr Forsey the week before he was arrested in Aug 2009. “He said he was working for €4.50 an hour and was having a hard time... He was trying to raise €30,000 to buy a bar in Lanzarote.” Asked why he thought Mr Forsey left the country in 2007, Mr Ryan told gardaí: “I don’t think he left because of the guards. He had an affair with a young one.”

He denied the €80,000 was anything to do with land in Ballygeoghegan, Dungarvan, he was trying to get rezoned from agriculture to industrial and residential.

Some of the land was rezoned for industrial use, not residential, in 2008 but the then-environment minister, John Gormley, overturned the rezoning vote.