Lynn rolled up his sleeves as his brief told banker: ‘He disputes everything’
Retrial begins as ex-solictor charged with 21 counts of theft
SITTING in the dock, Michael Lynn took off his deep blue zip-up cardigan, rolled up his shirt sleeves and focused intently on the retired banker to his right. On the stand, just yards away, the State’s first witness – former banker Noel McCole – was waiting to be cross examined by Lynn’s defence team.
This was the moment, when the former solicitor’s approach to his retrial, on 21 counts of theft amounting to more than €27m, would become apparent. The original trial concluded in June last year after almost five months when the jury failed to reach agreement and were discharged.The next few seconds would set the tone for Mr Lynn’s approach to the new trial.
‘I’m going to put Michael Lynn’s position to you,’ defence barrister, Paul Comiskey O’Keeffe, began: ‘He disputes everything.’
In the previous hour and a half, Mr McCole had been led through his evidence by lead prosecution barrister, Karl Finnegan.
Mr McCole told the court it was Lynn who had first initiated contact with National Irish Bank (NIB) when he wanted to borrow €1.38m in 2006. During the testimony, on day two of the trial on Thursday, documents and charts prepared by the defence were displayed in court on large screens.
These outlined how Lynn had told NIB the money was to be used to buy four Dublin properties.
The jury was shown an electronic funds transfer showing the money was drawn down electronically on March 16, 2007.
And the court was told how the undertakings to secure the loan against the properties to be bought were never honoured. The court also heard in forensic detail, with accompanying charts, how Lynn had sought and received loans for the same four properties from other banks.
Because of this, Mr McCole told the court, NIB had lost the funds it had advanced to Mr Lynn and had no recourse to recover them.
Listening to details of NIB’s loss, Lynn remained calm and impassive, taking notes on a hardback notebook and perusing case files on a laptop.
As he did so he alternatively chewed on a blue biro and stroked his chin with his left hand, displaying a gold wedding band.
In his evidence for the State, Mr McCole said Lynn’s application had been referred to him because he had prior knowledge of the solicitor from his previous role as manager of a local branch once used by him. Mr McCole testified that he never would have recommended the loan application to NIB’s credit committee if he had known there were other mortgages in place with other banks.
‘You had no idea of previous mortgages,’ Mr Finnegan asked.
‘Certainly not,’ Mr McCole answered.
Asked whether the loans would have been advanced to Lynn had NIB known of the other mortgages, Mr McCole replied: ‘It wouldn’t have happened.’
Mr Finnegan asked the former banker if he had ever heard of ‘side deals or secret deals’ being done between bankers and property developers.
‘Not as far as I was concerned or our bank was concerned,’ Mr McCole testified.
Mr McCole also said he was unaware of any ‘understanding’ that would allow borrowers to borrow money to buy property in Ireland but use it abroad. ‘No, I am not aware of that at all,’ he said.
Many of these answers were then disputed by Lynn’s defence team when their cross examination began shortly before lunch on Thursday.
After telling Mr McCole that Lynn ‘disputed everything,’ Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe elaborated.
‘Mr Lynn would dispute that you became involved because of an internal referral,’ Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe positioned. ‘He says you contacted him canvassing for business.’
‘I have no recollection of that,’ answered Mr McCole.
Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe then asked Mr McCole to clarify whether his answer meant the proposition was ‘incorrect, untrue - or you don’t remember’.
‘I don’t remember,’ Mr McCole replied.
Under cross examination, Mr McCole also denied he had a 2006 conversation with Lynn about ‘undertaking only-type loans’ in which the bank’s security wouldn’t be registered even though an undertaking to do so would be given. The former banker also said he ‘had never been asked for a secret deal’ and denied he ever told Lynn he had a contact who ‘could assist’ in getting loans approved.
He also denied Lynn’s position that an earlier loan application had been stalled because his point of contact had not been available at that time. ‘I’d never have said that,’ Mr McCole said.
Questioned by the defence, Mr McCole described how he first became aware of problems with multiple mortgages involving Lynn when it was in the news in 2007.
Specific details of some of those multiple mortgages were outlined on Wednesday as the prosecution’s opening statement outlined the charges against Lynn.
Michael Lynn (55), with an address in Arklow, Co Wicklow has pleaded not guilty to all counts relating to mortgage loans from seven banks in a nine-month period between October 2006 and June 2007. Entering and leaving the Criminal Courts of Justice building each day this week, he wore a blue woollen cap and black face mask as he passed waiting photographers outside. Once inside, he removed these and took his place in the dock at Court 22 where he sat calmly and followed the forensic proceedings closely.
Opening the case, prosecution barrister, John Berry told the jury that in one instance, Lynn had simultaneously obtained more than €11m from three banks to buy the same property.
Wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses, Lynn looked straight across the courtroom at the expanded jury of 15 as Mr Berry told them the defendant’s alleged thefts had not been ‘a case of carelessness’. Instead, Mr Berry told the Jury Lynn did what he did because he was ‘a solicitor and a property investor who knew how the system worked’.
Mr Berry told the court a feature of the case was that Lynn accepted he received the money.
He told the jury theft was defined in law as ‘taking something without the consent of the owner’. He argued that consent ‘obtained by deception’ is not consent.
Mr Berry said the deception alleged by the prosecution involved
‘He chewed on a blue biro and stroked his chin’
‘I had never been asked for a secret deal’
‘He’s a solicitor who knew how the system worked’
assurances provided to banks via solicitor’s undertaking and in other records provided to back up Lynn’s loan applications. Mr Berry explained the importance of a solicitor’s undertaking in a property transaction saying it was ‘a solemn promise’ that money lent to buy a property would be used for that purpose. He then told the jury the State’s case against Lynn would demonstrate breaches of this promise. One of various examples, outlined by Mr Berry to the court, involved Glenlion House in Howth, which had been on sale for €5.5m in 2007. The court was told that on April 4 that year, Lynn obtained a loan for the house from Irish Nationwide Building Society for €4.12m. Then, on April 12, he borrowed a further €3.75m from ACC Bank for the same property. And finally on April 19, a further loan of €3.85m was obtained for the same purpose from Bank of Scotland Ireland. Mr Berry told the court these simultaneous loans amounted to more than €11m.
Mr Berry told the jury some may think that banks bailed out because of what happened in 2006 and 2007 had ‘not been overburdened by humility or gratitude since then’.
But he told the jury they must put aside any prejudice they may have towards banks or solicitors and assess the facts ‘coldly and clinically’.
The trial, expected to conclude by Christmas, continues on Tuesday.