A BUSINESSMAN with an “insatiable thirst” to acquire properties on “a grand scale” and who persuaded banks to fund those on an “unbelievable” and “even grander scale” has been warned by a High Court judge he could yet be jailed unless he provides information to establish whether he can honour an agreement to pay €4.3 million for a service station in Tallaght.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly noted John O’Connor owns many properties here and abroad, has bank borrowings of some €175 million and an excess of €42 million liabilities over assets.
Mr O’Connor, of Ardilea, Clonskeagh, had clearly made a good impression on the banks but “not on me”, the judge said.
He was unable at this stage to say where the truth lies concerning Mr O’Connor’s claim he cannot honour an April 2009 settlement of a legal action against him by Esso Ireland over a 2006 contract for the €5.3 million purchase of the Esso service station in Tallaght. (Mr O’Connor has paid some €1 million of that).
Mr O’Connor agreed to that settlement just days after Anglo agreed to loan him €44 million but no provision was made to honour the settlement, the judge said. Mr O’Connor consented to the settlement order when he knew he could not meet it but “hoped” he could get money from Ulster Bank, he added.
This was “not an impressive record” and “worse still” was Mr O’Connor’s previous failures to fully disclose his assets.
Rejecting Mr O’Connor’s previous claim he “totally forgot” to list many properties in a statement of assets, the judge said only a person with “medically diagnosed amnesia” would be able to forget they had these properties, given the number and value of them.
Mr O’Connor had no amnesia, just “an insatiable thirst” to acquire properties funded by others and was in a predicament “entirely of his own making”.
However, despite Mr O’Connor’s breach of the settlement agreement and his clear contempt of court, there was little point in jailing him at this stage because what Esso wanted was to secure compliance with that agreement. Instead, the judge directed Mr O’Connor to pay Esso “forthwith” €160,000 raised by him from the sale of shares in CRH plus another €200,000 lodged in a current account for expenditure.
He also ordered Mr O’Connor to give Esso all necessary authorisations so it could establish the exact nature of arrangements under which various banks were permitted to “sweep” the bank account from which Mr O’Connor conducts business so as to clear repayment obligations to them. Some €4.6 million in rent payments into that account go directly to the banks, the court heard.
It was not clear if the banks have charges requiring that “sweep” or if Mr O’Connor was prioritising them over Esso in an effort to “keep them sweet” and avoid their appointing receivers over various properties, the judge said.
