Debtors offered an out but can they trust it?

Packed into a foyer and a small bar at a country hotel in Wicklow, dozens of debtors came to sign away properties they have been fighting desperately to keep out of the clutches of the banks.

Few appeared to understand the precise nature of what they were doing, and fewer still seemed able to explain it. But they had travelled from across the country at short notice in the belief that the mysterious Rodolphus Allen Private Family Trust had the wherewithal to defeat the lenders chasing them for millions of euro in outstanding debts.

In an adjoining room, a photocopier was in constant use, printing out a series of declarations and deeds that would record these people’s decisions to enter the trust.