Former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean FitzPatrick is seeking permission to build a new house at the back of his Greystones home, five years after emerging from bankruptcy.
Wicklow County Council records show that Mr FitzPatrick and his wife Catriona want to demolish a single-storey, fire-damaged dwelling known as Meadow Garden and replace it with a two-storey, four-bedroom house with a new entrance at Farm Lane at the back of their existing home.
The FitzPatricks want to build external terraces at ground and first-floor levels along with a garden. They are looking to include parking spaces for two vehicles next to the property.
Mr FitzPatrick said he did not want to make any comment about his plans for the property when contacted by The Irish Times on Sunday.
The couple held on to their home, Camaderry, next to Greystones Golf Club on Whitshed Road in the Co Wicklow seaside town after FitzPatrick was declared a bankrupt in 2010 with debts of €147 million and assets of just €47 million in the wake of the collapse of Anglo Irish Bank.
Meadow Gardens was valued at €550,000 by Mr FitzPatrick when he filed for bankruptcy in 2010, according to his statement of affairs outlining his assets and liabilities.
Court records showed that Ms FitzPatrick was entitled to a share of the cash held in bank accounts jointly held with her husband. Her share amounted to more than €1.1 million in June 2010.
Official assignees, the court-appointed officials who manage a bankruptcy estate, can sell the bankrupt’s interest in their home to their spouse if they are not using funds belonging to the bankrupt.
Property Registration Authority records show that Ms FitzPatrick bought her husband's share in their jointly owned home from Mr FitzPatrick's official assignee Chris Lehane for €430,000 in May.
Asset transfer
The property along with Meadow Garden was transferred from Mr Lehane to Ms FitzPatrick the same month, according to Registry of Deeds records filed the following month.
The transfer took place after Ms FitzPatrick settled her legal action against the official assignee claiming that she was entitled to €6 million of her husband’s assets on the basis that she had a beneficial interest in some assets given that she had made payments towards loans for assets.
Ms FitzPatrick had also brought a claim under family law.
Mr Lehane, representing Mr FitzPatrick’s bankruptcy estate, had taken his own legal proceedings against Ms FitzPatrick and the couple’s three adult children, David, Jonathan and Sara.
All the proceedings involving Ms FitzPatrick were settled in May.
Details of the planning application, lodged on November 18th, were first reported by The Sunday Times. A decision is due from the council by January 21st.
In May 2017 Mr FitzPatrick was acquitted on criminal counts of allegedly misleading Anglo’s auditors about tens of millions of euro in loans concealed from the public between 2002 and 2007.
He resigned as chairman of the bank in December 2008, almost a month before it was nationalised, after the true extent of his loans, amounting to about €122 million, were disclosed by the bank.
In an earlier trial, in April 2014, the 71-year-old former banker, who built Anglo in the country’s third largest bank, was acquitted by a jury on all charges against him relating to an unlawful share-buying scheme involving 10 wealthy customers aimed at shoring up the bank’s share price.
