Bankrupt Dunne is ‘failing to cooperate’
BANKRUPT developer Seán Dunne has failed to tell State officials ‘where he is living, what he is earning and whether there are other parties subventing or paying for his lifestyle’, the High Court was told yesterday.
The 63-year-old father-of-three – who was forced into bankruptcy in Ireland in July 2013 over a €164million debt to Ulster Bank that has never been discharged – is ‘not entitled to pick and choose what information he gives,’ a barrister for the State’s bankruptcy service has told the court.
Mr Dunne – whose bankruptcy was meant to be completed by July 2016 – claims that being bankrupt for the past five years is ‘as close as it can get’ to a prison sentence.
He was refused any automatic exit from bankruptcy in July 2016 amid accusations that he had failed to cooperate with bankruptcy bosses in their efforts to make him surrender assets for distribution among his creditors – and may have been ‘hiding assets’.
Yesterday, the man who was once known as the Baron of Ballsbridge went to the High Court to fight attempts by Ireland’s Official Assignee in Bankruptcy, Chris Lehane, to keep him bankrupt until July 2021 and make him pay €5,000 a month until then.
Opening the case yesterday, Mark Sanfey SC, for Mr Lehane, said the Carlow-born building magnate, who filed for bankruptcy in the US in 2013, simply could not ignore his obligations to Ireland.
Bankrupts must notify officials of any change in name or address during bankruptcy – and must also inform the Official Assignee of ‘any profession, vocation or employment in which he’s engaged,’ the court heard.
Mr Sanfey told Judge Caroline Costello: ‘Failing to comply is an offence. Under pain of criminal sanction, you must notify the Official Assignee… it’s been a constant of complaint of the Official Assignee that he’s not been able to establish the address of the bankrupt [Mr Dunne]. The affidavits put in by the bankrupt recite an address at which the bankrupt does not reside.’
Mr Lehane ‘urgently requires to learn of the particular domestic circumstances of the bankrupt – where he is living, what he is earning, whether there are other parties subventing or paying for his lifestyle,’ Mr Sanfey explained.
The hearing continues.