Court temporarily frees Offaly businessman jailed for contempt

A Co Offaly businessman jailed for almost two weeks for contempt of court over failure to secure the return of leased machinery worth €2m has been temporarily freed by a High Court judge until later this week.

Ms Justice Mary Laffoy warned Donal Rigney yesterday he could be returned to jail on Thursday if the court orders concerning return of the machinery to finance company Lombard Ireland Ltd are not obeyed.

Mr Rigney, a father of four and plant hire operator of Gortacur, Mount Bolus, Tullamore, had absconded after an order committing him to prison was made on August 23 last.

He went to the North and then to Dubai, where much of the machinery is located, before returning here and presenting himself to gardaí two weeks ago. He was then jailed in Mountjoy Prison where he remained until yesterday.

Yesterday, Nuala Butler SC, for Mr Rigney, said he had left the jurisdiction to try and have the machines returned and was anxious to press ahead with an application to purge his contempt.

Ms Butler said Mr Rigney was encountering difficulties in trying to have the machines returned, including that six of those appeared to have been fraudulently removed from his company by his Dubai sponsor into the ownership others.

His imprisonment also made it difficult for him to make unlimited phone contact with persons in the United Arab Emirates.

Mr Rigney was having difficulty contacting Lombard's agent in Dubai who had not returned many of his calls, counsel said.

Four machines had been returned out of a schedule of 15 in Dubai and some others could be delivered up if collected by Lombard's agent.

The continuing imprisonment of Mr Rigney was causing severe hardship for his wife who was seriously ill with depression and had also had unrelated surgery, Ms Butler added.

Senan Allen SC, for Lombard, said his side wanted the machines back but Mr Rigney was making that impossible and there was a continuing drip-feed of information at the last minute. His side needed time to address material in affidavits filed just yesterday by Mr Rigney.

Mr Allen said Mr Rigney's difficulties were of his own making and it was significant nothing much had happened until the court had made the jailing order.

Ms Justice Laffoy said she would temporarily free Mr Rigney until Thursday to allow Lombard reply to the affidavits but Mr Rigney was still required to obey the court orders concerning the machinery and not to leave the jurisdiction.

While conscious of the difficulties experienced by Mrs Rigney, these could not be a basis for setting aside the courts orders in the case, the judge added.

The judge also said she was not making any decision at this point as to whether the six machines allegedly fraudulently removed were beyond the control of Mr Rigney.

Lombard brought the proceedings arising out of Mr Rigney’s failure to return 17 pieces of machinery, including dumper trucks, cranes and excavators, estimated to have been worth between €1.9m and €2m.

Proceedings have also been taken by National Irish Asset Finance, which is seeking possession of machinery it had leased to Mr Rigney’s company, Donal Rigney Ltd.