An air of silent tension f illed the courtroom
As Michael Lynn produces a new document suggesting NIB acted secretively...
DETECTIVE Laura Barton took the memory stick from Michael Lynn’s defence team and inserted it into the court computer.
Sitting at a terminal just beneath Judge Martin Nolan’s bench, her role was to display any documentary evidence required by either the defence or the prosecution as they question witnesses.
Squinting as she located the file, Detective Barton clicked it open. It’s just after midday on Halloween, and this was the first time since the retrial began last week that the defence has introduced an exhibit. Until now, the prosecution had controlled all the evidence in its €27m theft case against Lynn. He has pleaded not guilty to the 21 charges against him.
As the PDF file appeared on screens throughout the courtroom, printed copies were distributed to each of the 15 jurors. The new document, the court is told by defence barrister, Paul Comiskey O’Keeffe, is from National Irish Bank’s (NIB) internal ‘portal’. It was not, the court was told, among the files the bank disclosed to gardaí.
Instead, the defence team has recently obtained it independently.
Seated in the witness box for his second day of cross examination, Lynn’s former NIB lender, Noel McCole, scanned the newly-discovered paperwork. Amid an air of silent tension, the prosecution barristers did likewise. No one knows what it might contain.
At the back of the court, sitting on cushions and padded chairs they have just requisitioned after a week on the court’s wooden benches, the garda team shift in their seats.
Leading the NIB witness through the new defence exhibit, Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe points to a heading entitled ‘collateral’. It details the security the bank had against Mr Lynn’s borrowings.
‘Solicitor’s U/t over 4 properties,’ is the only form of security listed.
Lynn’s position, the court has repeatedly heard, is that he had ‘secret deals’ with lenders who knew his undertakings to secure borrowings against properties were a ‘facade’.
Lynn alleges he had ‘carte blanche’ with the funds received and the paperwork was a ‘charade’ in which banks were complicit.
Now, after displaying the file, the defence asks Mr McCole about the entry indicating the only security was a solicitor’s undertaking.
‘I don’t really know what I’m looking at,’ he says.
Immediately, prosecution lead, Karl Finnegan, is on his feet.
‘This document has not been properly explained,’ he objects.
Judge Nolan swung around, raising a hand, ‘Where did you get it?’ he asked the defence.
In the dock, Lynn is rigid. He has the look of a child spectator at a schoolyard brawl, transfixed by the prospect of a dust up.
‘It was a data subject access request’ to National Irish Bank which has a ‘statutory obligation’ to respond, Mr Comiskey O’Keefe answered. ‘An application was made previously which wasn’t complied with by NIB.’ Mr
Finnegan interjects: ‘That’s comMcCole pletely inappropriate.’ Judge Nolan sternly and swiftly silences both sides. ‘You are here to explain this document – not your grievances with NIB,’ he warned the defence.
Returning to the newly-evidenced file, Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe points to another entry on the record.
It indicates that certain information about Mr Lynn must be ‘kept off’ the NIB portal ‘at the request of’ the bank’s ‘Steering Committee’.
‘There was a committee made up of senior management at the bank who was keeping information off portal,’ Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe propositioned.
‘I was never aware of anything withheld from the portal,’ Mr McCole replied.
Lynn’s team also quizzed Mr about why the document was not included in records he provided to gardaí.
‘I have to put it to you, you have been selective in terms of the documents you have produced from the bank,’ the defence said.
‘I produced the documents I had,’ Mr McCole replied.
The tense exchange set the tone for the remainder of the week as the prosecution put seven more bankers on the stand.
Each lender, in turn, denied any knowledge of ‘undertaking only’ loans and all testify that funds would never have been advanced if they had known of the charade Mr Lynn is alleging.
The court heard how some of the loans concerned were advanced to Proper T Capel Ltd - a firm then jointly owned by Lynn and his wife, Brid Murphy. Sandwiched between the lending executives, the State brought in other witnesses.
They included Lynn’s former accountant, John Kinsella. He testified that stamps and signatures on statements of affairs provided to banks as part of Lynn’s loan requests were ‘forged’ and not provided by his office.
Similarly, Fiona McAleenan, a lawyer who worked in Mr Lynn’s legal firm, testified that her signature was forged on undertakings provided to banks. She testified Lynn’s assistant, Liz Doyle, forged the signatures – at his request.
Ms McAleenan also told the court she signed undertakings presented to her without looking at them and expected they be followed through by others. Ms McMcAleenan is due to give further evidence and has not yet been cross examined.
Cross examining each of the banking witnesses this week, the defence forensically picked apart every loan application and questioned the validity of the loan approvals process.
The defence also questioned banking witnesses about the relationships Lynn had with his financiers. The court heard one lender - Mark Mulcahy from Irish Nationwide - was invited to a ‘property expo’ by Lynn.
‘I had nothing to do with those properties,’ Mr Mulcahy said when asked under cross examination. ‘He was selling properties in Portugal and he asked me if I wanted to come along, and I did.’
In another instance, the defence told how Mr Lynn hired a former Bank of Scotland Ireland employee, to ‘smooth’ and ‘create an understanding’
‘I don’t really know what I am looking at’
‘I had nothing to do with those properties’
with lenders in the bank ‘so they would approve’ loans.’
Similarly, the defence questioned Bank of Ireland (BOI) underwriter, Arthur King, about a €1.5m ‘bail out’ Lynn provided in 2003 when he ‘took over’ a BOI loan he had no responsibility for.
The ‘favour’ was not an ‘entirely altruistic gesture,’ Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe suggested to the witness.
‘He was trying to develop a relationship with personalities in Bank of Ireland and one way of going at was to do them a favour.’
Asked if such a ‘bail out’ was normal, Mr King said he had no idea.
Judge Nolan interjected: ‘I think the jury can accept there are very few people out there who would take on responsibility for a loan that was not theirs… if it happened that would be very unusual.’
Watching intently from the dock as the judge spoke, Mr Lynn grinned as Judge Nolan spoke.
The defence also raised a €5.5m Bank of Scotland Ireland loan that Lynn declined to draw down.
‘So he had this possibility to get this €5.5m and he just didn’t take it?’ defence barrister, Mark Lynam asked BOSI lender, Tom Brennan.
‘It didn’t proceed, for whatever reason,’ Mr Brennan answered.
Judge Nolan had a word of goodhumoured advice for prosecution lead, Karl Finnegan, after a week in which the prosecution called many witness relating to different aspects of the case – some of whom will be called again later.
‘This is what it’s like in a long trial,’ Judge Nolan told the jury.
‘A bit like making a film, they don’t make the film chronologically – they do it all over the place. Mr Finnegan assures me it will all come right in the end.’
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