Dunne: My kids slept on blow-up beds
BUSINESSMAN Seán Dunne has claimed his children slept on blow-up beds in an almost empty mansion during his bankruptcy.
The 63-year-old father of three also told the High Court yesterday that he has slept in tents in Africa and will happily live in any house ‘without furniture’.
The man once dubbed the ‘Baron of Ballsbridge’ yesterday told a judge that since being declared bankrupt in 2013, over a €164million debt to Ulster Bank, he has ‘spent time’ in New York, Connecticut, England and Ireland.
Giving evidence in his legal fight to avoid staying in bankruptcy until 2021, the tycoon quipped that he ‘could live in Windsor Castle’, but that wouldn’t give him an income or help him pay his creditors.
He said he suspected ‘jealousy’ on the part of Ireland’s Official Bankruptcy Assignee, Chris Lehane.
Mr Dunne also revealed his suspicions that his US address was ‘released by private investigators working for my creditors,’ leading to the Dunnes being ‘hounded and harassed by the press’.
His wife Gayle and children left their Connecticut home and moved to the UK in late 2013 because life there ‘became intolerable’, he told Judge Caroline Costello.
Mr Dunne was declared bankrupt in 2013 and was due to exit the process three years later – but has never been discharged due to his alleged failures to co-operate fully. It was claimed he gave the address of an ‘unfurnished and unoccupied’ US mansion when asked by bankruptcy officials to identify himself.
When pressed on that matter in court yesterday, Mr Dunne said: ‘There was enough furniture left there [in the Connecticut house] for us to occupy it. We returned to America... we stayed in the house.
‘We left two main beds in the house... the house was 90%-plus devoid of furniture...’
He said this was because a sale of it didn’t complete.
Mr Dunne said his children slept on blow-up beds in the Connecticut home, and added: ‘No matter where I live, it doesn’t mean I have income. I could live in Windsor Castle, what does that mean? That I have access to the Queen’s money? It might be jealousy on behalf of the Official Assignee or other people – but it doesn’t provide me with an income or an asset, and it doesn’t allow me to pay money to my creditors.’
He added: ‘I’ve slept in all sorts of conditions. I’ve gone to townships in Africa where we sleep in tents. I can live without furniture.’
The hearing continues.
‘I can live without furniture’