Lynn made ‘excuses’ to avoid meeting the gardaí
INSPECTOR Patrick Linehan took the oath and leaned in close to the microphone to give his evidence.
‘I ran the investigation. I was in charge of it,’ he told the court, his deep, gravelly, no-nonsense Dublin accent booming through the speakers.
Although he retired in June, Inspector Linehan has been present throughout the multi-million-euro theft retrial of former developer and solicitor Michael Lynn, which began five weeks ago.
The court has heard he was also present for every day of the previous, inconclusive trial last year.
Led through his evidence by prosecution barrister Karl Finnegan this week, Inspector Linehan described how his team at the then Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation had been contacted by Robert Eagar – Mr Lynn’s then solicitor – in January 2008.
Mr Lynn, who has pleaded not guilty to all counts, is facing 21 charges of theft amounting to €27m involving loans from seven financial institutions.
The court previously heard Mr Lynn left the country in December 2007 as concerns were raised about his borrowing.
Inspector Linehan told the jury his team had agreed to meet Mr Lynn abroad on four occasions between November 2008 and October 2011 after Mr Eagar had established contact.
‘It was to give him an opportunity to tell his story,’ Inspector Linehan said.
However, the court heard none of these meetings had happened.
Consulting his sworn statement, Inspector Linehan confirmed that the first meeting, scheduled for London on November 20, 2008, had been cancelled because Mr Eagar had a trial to attend.
The court heard that a second meeting was then arranged in Portugal after Mr Eagar said his client could not meet in Dublin.
Mr Eagar also sought ‘assurances no European Arrest Warrant would issue until at least four weeks after the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation interviewed Mr Lynn’.
A second agreed meeting date was then set for May 23, 2011, and led to gardaí making a ‘mutual legal assistance’ request to the Portuguese authorities to clear the way for the interview.
This process, the court heard, involved translators and police in Portugal being sent details of the case and is necessary when ‘witnesses or suspects or persons of interest’ are to be interviewed abroad.
But this second agreed meeting was also cancelled because Mr Lynn wanted his Irish, English and Portuguese solicitors to be present, and gardaí were told they were not available.
The court heard that a third date of June 27, 2011, was then agreed in Portugal, and that this had been confirmed to gardaí by ‘Dr Urbano’ – Mr Lynn’s solicitor there.
This appointment was cancelled on June 23 by Mr Lynn’s London law firm – Merryman White – because he ‘had no representation that had been fully briefed’.
Inspector Lenihan told the court a fourth meeting was set up, also in Portugal, for October 24, 2011.
The trial heard Mr Lynn’s London solicitor – Ray Murphy of Merryman White – cancelled this meeting on October 19, 2011, saying ‘he knew nothing of the meeting and nor did his client’.
Inspector Linehan told the court. ‘Flights had been booked for these meetings.’
He also confirmed the Irish State had been billed for the translation costs incurred by the Portuguese authorities.
Inspector Linehan told the jury his team formed the view that the last cancellation had been ‘just another excuse for not being available to meet with us’.
‘They were always at very short notice and fairly close to the time we were to meet,’ he said of the repeated cancellations.
‘Dr Urbano – the Portuguese solicitor – had confirmed to the Portuguese police and our Garda liaison officer that on each of those arranged meetings he had signed confirmation that his client would be there,’ Inspector Linehan added.
The court heard that Inspector Linehan’s team then decided to ‘go ahead and close off this line of inquiry, as something that was not going to happen’.
Under cross-examination by defence barrister Paul Comiskey O’Keeffe, Inspector Linehan said gardaí later learned in 2013 from Interpol that Mr Lynn had moved to Brazil on June 13, 2011 – before the last two meetings agreed in Portugal.
Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe put it to Inspector Linehan that living in Brazil ‘would have been no impediment’ to Lynn attending a meeting in Portugal.
‘The reality is if you’ve got an interview in two weeks’ time it’s a bit of a strange move,’ Inspector Linehan observed.
‘To relocate?’ asked Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe.
‘Yes,’ replied Inspector Linehan.
‘Even with international air travel to come back?’ Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe asked.
‘Well you could,’ Inspector Linehan accepted. ‘But the reality is – the clear thing here – is he had every opportunity to tell his story to us. He could still have come and met the guards and told his story to us. He could have corresponded through his solicitor and advised us of all the evidence he may or may not have had.
‘He had ample opportunity to give information to the Garda organisation and the investigation team in relation to any evidence that would have disproved the allegations.’
Inspector Linehan confirmed that the gardaí had been in contact with Brazilian authorities since 2008 because of an ‘apprehension that Mr Lynn might go to that jurisdiction’.
Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe read to the jury correspondence from the Brazilian authorities to gardaí in 2011 indicating that someone with residency and a Brazilian-born child could be extradited.
‘There was no impediment to extradition,’ he told Inspector Linehan. ‘You were reassured.’
‘I don’t agree we were reassured,’ Inspector Lenihan replied. ‘It’s a very difficult country to get an extradition. We had to get a temporary treaty. There was a lot of work to be done.’
Listening to the exchange, trial Judge Martin Nolan, interjected: ‘Sorry, one police force told another police force that somebody can be extradited.
‘Leitrim can win the All-Ireland hurling title, and we know that there’s probably not much possibility of it.
‘The “can” is a very, very big “can”, and police forces are sometimes not the best at interpreting law either,’ he told the jury..
The defence also asked Inspector Linehan about an April 2010 letter to his team from then Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, at a time when there had been a lot of media coverage of the investigation.
‘He wanted to know about progress in the investigation,’ Mr Comiskey O’Keeffe said. ‘I’m not suggesting he applied pressure at all, but he certainly raised it and it ultimately reached you.’
‘With high-profile cases the Commissioner is obviously going to take an interest,’ Inspector Linehan told the court. ‘But he wasn’t in any way interfering.’
‘Alan Shatter was a TD and became the Minister for Justice and some of that prompted some of your superiors in the Guards to make inquiries,’ Mr Comiskey persisted.
‘Yeah, well, sure, I mean – it’s all just noise,’ Inspector Linehan shrugged.
‘Like, to be honest with you, it doesn’t affect the investigation. If we were to be concerned about what the politicians say or senior management say, we’d be running around in circles.’
The prosecution’s case has now concluded after hearing from dozens of bankers, solicitors and former employees of Mr Lynn’s over the past five weeks.
The trial, which is expected to conclude before Christmas, continues next week as the defence case begins.
The jury has repeatedly been told that Mr Lynn will testify in his own defence.
‘I ran the investigation. I was in charge of it’
‘He could have come and told his story to us’