Arrest warrant issued for Quinn nephew

A judge has today issued an arrest warrant for a nephew of nephew of bankrupt ex-billionaire Sean Quinn.

After failing to appear for sentencing in a contempt hearing, Judge Elizabeth Dunne said she noted that Peter Darragh Quinn was not too sick to sign off on his affidavit at 4am this morning.

After a lawyer for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) raised the issue of an arrest warrant being issued, the judge warned that without a reasonable explanation soon for his absence it would be the only way of getting him in court.

After more than an hour of legal argument, the warrant was issued.

Peter Darragh Quinn was found guilty of the contempt, along with his uncle and the former tycoon's son Sean junior by the High Court in Dublin three weeks ago.

Lawyers for the Quinns revealed that a voicemail had been left on a solicitor's phone at 10.40am this morning stating that he was sick and unable to attend the sentencing hearing.

Legal representatives have been unable to contact Peter Darragh Quinn since the message was left.

He had been due to appear in the packed Courtroom 12 of the Four Courts in Dublin where Judge Dunne is hearing arguments before deciding whether to jail the three men for contempt.

Suring the hearing, Paul Gallagher, senior counsel for the former Anglo-Irish Bank which is chasing the Quinns' €500m international property empire, said it appeared the men were happy to go to jail for a short time and keep their assets.

Sean Quinn Snr, once Ireland's richest man, owes debts of €2.8bn to the lender - since rebranded the IBRC - after he was allowed to borrow huge sums to buy shares in the bank.

He was using the money to try and recoup losses run up in complex and secret stock deals known as "contracts for difference" in the doomed bank's final days and weeks.

Judge Dunne said simply that Peter Darragh Quinn should be in court.

Mr Quinn, dressed in a navy suit and purple tie, looked relaxed alongside his son Sean who was dressed in a navy suit and tie.

Mr Gallagher told the court he could show a very disturbing development in the contempt lawsuit which had been filmed in a restaurant in the Ukrainian capital Kiev in January.

The meeting shows Peter Darragh Quinn and Sean Quinn Jnr, on video, as they discussed trying to transfer a company and move cash through Amsterdam, with Peter saying that lying to a court would not "overly bother" him.

Mr Gallagher said an affidavit from the defendants explaining the footage was "wholly inadequate" and attempted to minimise what was done.

Earlier, he told the judge he had lodged notice to appeal against her contempt of court order, and the coercive measures, to the Supreme Court.

The Quinns have given notice that they plan to appeal to the Supreme Court the finding of contempt.

They were found in contempt of a court order from June 2011 which bound them not to keep assets from the bank as it sought to recoup debts.