SEAN QUINN ‘TRESPASSED IN QUARRY HE ONCE OWNED’
High Court hears that former billionaire has been ‘driving his Mercedes’ on business sites
FORMER billionaire Seán Quinn has been trespassing at a cement factory and a quarry he used to own in ‘a misguided form of aggression’, it has been alleged in the High Court.
The owners of his former businesses want the High Court to grant an injunction to prevent Mr Quinn from driving his Mercedes-Benz onto their property.
They complained that they have been the subject of ‘a long and wellpublicised campaign of intimidation, violence and serious threats’ – a campaign which Mr Quinn himself has condemned.
The High Court granted their request to issue a ‘short service’ notice to Mr Quinn that they are seeking the injunction. The court heard that a similar injunction was granted in the North to stop Mr Quinn from trespassing on their property north of the border.
Yesterday’s High Court action was taken by Mannok Cement Limited and Mannok Build Ltd, which were formerly part of the Quinn Group.
The companies claim in an affidavit that Mr Quinn last trespassed
on May 8, when his E-Class Mercedes-Benz was seen driving around their cement factory at Scotstown, Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan.
Previously, he trespassed on the Mannock quarry in Swanlinbar, Co. Cavan, they alleged, in a series of events that dates back to 2019.
They claim his actions are a health and safety risk, as the sites use heavy machinery and only authorised personnel are permitted to be there.
They say they don’t know why Mr Quinn turns up at their sites, but believe it is ‘a misguided form of aggression in the form of defiance’, that is directed at the management of the companies. They also say that their solicitor has written to Mr Quinn requesting that his trespassing end.
Mannok is the new title for Quinn Industrial Holdings, which changed its name to break all ties with Mr Quinn and which holds a significant part of the former Mr Quinn’s business empire. Its assets include a brick factory, a separate light brick factory, a cement factory and quarries.
Mannok chief executive Liam McCaffrey said in an affidavit to the High Court that the company’s management has been the subject of ‘a long and wellpublicised campaign of intimidation, violence and serious threats’. He accepts that Mr Quinn has ‘repeatedly condemned the violence against the management team’.’
Judge Siobhán Stack granted their request to serve a short service notice to Mr Quinn of their injunction request at his home in Ballyconnell, Co. Cavan. Mr Quinn then has the legal right to respond in the High Court to their application. His solicitor has not yet replied to a request for comment.
Mr Quinn saw his empire collapse during the crash of 2008 and 2009, when he was strongly linked to Anglo Irish Bank.
The name of Quinn Industrial Holdings was officially changed to Mannok in 2020. Mr Quinn complained bitterly about the name change and questioned the right of his former executives, Mr McCaffrey, Kevin Lunney and Dara O’Reilly, to drop his name from a business he had established in 1973.
The High Court heard that in 2010, Mr Quinn gave the Northern Ireland High Court an undertaking not to trespass on Mannok land north of the border, as much of the company’s property straddles the Cavan/ Fermanagh border.
The Northern Ireland undertaking related to the Mannok quarry at Doon, Co. Fermanagh. That case was taken by Mannok Aggregates Ltd.
The latest action comes after Mr Quinn said in April that he has ‘nothing to hide’, after gardaí searched his home in Cavan as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged criminality in Cavan and Monaghan.
In a statement at the time, Mr Quinn revealed that he was working on his autobiography when gardaí arrived at his house, and said that even his writing papers for his book were taken. He insisted that gardaí are looking ‘in the wrong direction’.
Mr Quinn has long denied
Complained about name change
Said he has ‘nothing to hide’
being part of, or directing, a campaign of harassment and violence against Quinn Industrial Holdings, by unknown people. The campaign culminated in the kidnapping and torture of its chief executive Mr Lunney in September 2019.
Seven years’ worth of emails, texts and memos have been handed over to gardaí by Quinn Industrial Holdings as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged criminality in the Monaghan and Cavan area.
Mr Quinn told BBC News NI in April that he did not know why the police had come to his home. ‘They said it was coercion, deception, harassment – stuff like that,’ he said. ‘So, I asked them who was I harassing... and they said, “Look we can’t tell you that. We just have to do our investigation but that’s what we’re here for.”