McFeely’s claim he’s on breadline ‘not credible’

High Court rejects firetrap Priory Hall developer’s claim he lives on £151 a week and extends his bankruptcy by f ive years

CONTROVERSIAL firetrap developer, IRA hunger striker and former millionaire Tom McFeely claimed he is a bachelor living on a weekly pension of £151, as part of a desperate bid to prevent his period of bankruptcy being extended.

But despite making these extraordinary claims the Priory Hall builder – the north Dublin development where 200 families had to be evacuated in 2011 because of fire safety concerns – had his period of bankruptcy extended for another five years by the High Court last week.

He was initially declared bankrupt here in July 2012 and would have been due to be automatically discharged as a bankrupt three years later in July 2015.

But Christopher Lehane, the official handling McFeely’s bankruptcy, took the unprecedented step of applying for the period of bankruptcy to be extended.

In an eleventh hour bid to prevent this, McFeely insisted bankruptcy had taken its toll on his personal life and finances.

He said, since becoming a bankrupt in July 2012, his marriage to his American wife has broken down and his financial circumstances have become so dire that he now survives on a British state pension of £151 as well as charitable hand-outs from friends.

In a 14-page affidavit sworn last September 11 and submitted to the High Court in Dublin, McFeely stated that days after he was declared bankrupt he told the official assignee he’d ‘become estranged from my wife and family’.

He stated: ‘Nevertheless I was doing everything I could to help save our former matrimonial home to provide a roof over their heads.

‘I have not earned any money since I was adjudicated bankrupt in Ireland. Throughout the period from then until now I have been living in London in accommodation provided to me by friends. They have also been providing me with financial support. I do not have any other permanent address than the address given by me to Mr Lehane in Northern Ireland. I do not have any income apart from a UK State pension of £151 per week.’

The Irish Mail on Sunday revealed last August how McFeely had concealed almost €10,000 a month in rental payments from 12 Dublin properties which he allegedly did not disclose to the official handling his bankruptcy.

In her ruling last week Judge Caroline Costello condemned McFeely over his ‘very grave and extreme’ failures to cooperate with State officials handling his bankruptcy. She ruled his claim that he had ‘no fixed abode’ between July 2012 and the end of last year was ‘simply [not] credible in all the circumstances’.

Judge Costello concluded: ‘Far from being homeless, he was the owner of many residential properties. He has been careful not to state that he had nowhere to live.’

In 2013, Irish insolvency law was changed so bankrupts are automatically discharged from the process after three years. Extensions are ordered only in exceptional cases. McFeely is the first person to have his bankruptcy extended by five years.

Claim not to have earned money since 2012 Concealed €10k a month rental income in past