Scandal-hit councillor’s big spending revealed

A COUNCILLOR who appeared in a recent RTÉ Investigates show has been ordered to pay a compensation bill after a court heard how he dined in expensive restaurants and spent lavishly on clothing.

Independent Donegal councillor John O’Donnell said the case was intended to ‘blacken my good name in the media again’ as he defended a decision to stop paying money to a woman whose foot he drove over in 2000.

Mr O’Donnell’s finances were laid bare at the hearing at Letterkenny District Civil Court, in which the politician again claimed to be millions of euro in debt. Petra Kucklick, a German native, from Mill Cottage, Rooskey, Creeslough, Co. Donegal, sued him for an outstanding €33,000 debt from a personal injury claim.

The court heard the councillor had paid €7,600 in 2009 but then stopped making any payments despite a court order. The 2008 judgment related to an incident in 2000 in which Mr O’Donnell had driven over the foot of Ms Kucklick at a building site in Co. Donegal.

Judge Paul Kelly heard Ms Kucklick’s barrister Laura O’Reilly detail what she said were extravagant expenses. She said updated bank statements showed Mr O’Donnell spent €960 at Watson’s Menswear in Letterkenny in December just days before the RTÉ exposé.

He also spent hundreds of euro on meals at the upmarket Dublin bar Café en Seine in December and at Peploe’s wine bistro in January, where the bill was €350, it was heard.

Judge Kelly warned that Mr O’Donnell could face jail if he failed to comply with the compensation order. He ordered Mr O’Donnell to pay €100 per week to Ms Kucklick.

On the RTÉ exposé, the politician appeared to ask for cash for help with a fictional wind farm project, something which he has strenuously denied. He has launched legal proceedings against RTÉ over the programme.