A HIGH Court judge has further continued orders restraining the children of bankrupt businessman Seán Quinn, a nephew, two sons in law and a number of international companies dealing with assets owned or controlled by them worldwide below €50 million each.

The Quinn defendants will be allowed up to €8,000 for ordinary living expenses each, subject to approval by solicitors for the former Anglo Irish Bank and receipts being provided by them, until the injunction orders return to court on July 24th, Mr Justice Peter Kelly directed.

While he was not to be taken as accepting that people normally needed €2,000 weekly for living expenses, he would allow the €8,000 sum until July 24th as the sides had agreed it, the judge said.

The defendants are also entitled to legal and perhaps some exceptional domestic expenses subject to formal approval by the court.

Bill Shipsey SC, for the defendants, had objected to the requirement that the expenses must be vouched and said vouching had not been sought to date.

Mr Justice Kelly said he considered the bank’s request for vouching reasonable in the circumstances, including the “very serious findings” of contempt of court orders restraining asset dissipation made against Seán Quinn snr, his son Seán jnr and his nephew Peter Darragh Quinn earlier this week by Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne.

He added that he expected the bank’s solicitors to be reasonable about approving expenses with “no nickel and diming”.

The judge noted there may be an issue whether the three found in contempt of court could be heard on July 24th given the normal rule that persons found in contempt of court were not heard until their contempt was purged.

That issue will be clarified when Ms Justice Dunne rules on the sanctions to be applied to the three tomorrow.

Mr Justice Kelly also yesterday granted the bank’s application to fast-track in the Commercial Court its action aimed at preventing dissipation of up to €500 million in assets in the Quinn family’s international property group.

The case was “extremely urgent” because the bank had evidence showing breaches of the orders restraining dissipation of assets were continuing, Paul Gallagher SC, for Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly Anglo, said.

The bank had “great concerns” over what was happening to the assets.

Mr Shipsey also noted Ms Justice Dunne’s findings against Seán Quinn snr, his son Seán and nephew Peter Darragh Quinn, which included that the three had engaged in a “dishonest” and “deceitful” asset-stripping scheme in contempt of court orders.

He said his side was not objecting to the case being fast-tracked but believed no further step should be taken beyond transfer until another High Court judge, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, ruled on the bank’s application to discharge his order referring a jurisdictional issue to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

Mr Gallagher said the bank believed the case should proceed even if the referral to the ECJ continued as it would take years for the ECJ to decide the matter and this case was very urgent.

Mr Justice Kelly said that despite these proceedings having been initiated a year ago, the delay in seeking to transfer them to the Commercial Court was explicable due to various matters and he would fast-track the case.

Even if the reference to the ECJ went ahead, and it appeared the whole basis for that had fallen with the dismissal of proceedings in Cyprus taken by the Quinns, this case should proceed urgently given Ms Justice Dunne’s “powerful findings of wrongdoing” by some of the defendants and the bank’s concerns over their continuing behaviour, the judge added.

It made little sense not to have this case in the Commercial Court when its “mirror image” – the case by Patricia Quinn and her children disputing liability for some €2.8 billion in loans made by Anglo to Quinn group companies – was already before the court, he added.

The freezing orders apply to assets owned or controlled worldwide by the five Quinn children – Aoife, Ciara, Colette, Brenda and Seán jnr; Peter Darragh Quinn; two sons-in-law – Stephen Kelly and Niall McPartland – and several companies based in Belize, Panama, Russia and the United Arab Emirates alleged to have co-operated with the Quinns in stripping assets.