A Victorian house in Ballsbridge which was at the centre of a fraudulent sale six years ago has sold, legitimately, at auction for €1.635 million.
The boarded-up house at 13 St Mary’s Road in Dublin 4, appeared on the Property Price Register (PPR) in 2018 as having sold for €525,000 – a rock-bottom price at a time when houses on the road were typically fetching more than €2 million.
However, it emerged that the purported vendor “never owned the property” in a case described in the High Court by Mr Justice Brian O’Moore as “truly extraordinary”.
The house, a protected structure, was bought by Liam and Keira Curran in 2006 but was repossessed by Permanent TSB, now PTSB in 2015. The house was entered on to the council’s derelict sites register, but removed in 2017 after the bank cleared large amounts of rubble and litter from the front garden.
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In January 2018, the house appeared on the PPR. However, neither the bank nor the Currans had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the purported sale. They took legal action against Hamilton Holdings, a US-based company that had been registered as the owner of 13 St Mary’s Road.
In his June 2023 judgment, Mr Justice O’Moore said Hamilton had purportedly been sold the house by a company called Kent International Holdings with an address in Nevis, in the West Indies, in January 2018. Kent, in turn, had purportedly acquired the property from the Currans in July 2014, which was, Mr Justice O’Moore noted, “a matter of some surprise to the Currans and to PTSB”.
Mr Justice O’Moore said he had “no option but to find that the asserted conveyance of the Ballsbridge property to Kent was a fraudulent transaction” as the purported conveyance of the house from the Currans to Kent “never happened. Any deed purporting to have effected such a transfer is a fraud”.
An online auction of the house – which had a guide price €1 million – was held by estate agents Quillsen at noon. The house sold with half an hour after more than 70 bids, for €1.635 million.
In October of this year, a trial opened in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in relation to the fraudulent procurement of the Ballsbridge house and another property in Phibsborough.
[ False deeds used for two Dublin properties without owners knowing, court toldOpens in new window ]
Herbert Kilcline (63), a former solicitor with an address at Bessborough Parade, Rathmines, Dublin, was found guilty of eight counts including fraudulent procurement of entry to the land registry.
Philip Marley (53), a businessman and former owner of Ely properties, with an address at Rathbourne Court, Ashtown, Dublin, pleaded guilty to three counts, which included procuring the registration of a false deed, fraudulent procurement of an entry into the land registry and deception.
Both men await sentence.
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