FORMER BILLIONAIRE Sean Quinn said he was determined to return to business and to do so from Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, the village he comes from and the location of the headquarters of the Quinn Group which was seized in April by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (formerly Anglo).

In his affidavit to the court Mr Quinn (65) said he developed his business empire from his family farm in Derrylin, lived nearby in Co Cavan, and drove past the headquarters of the Quinn Group on “almost a daily basis.

“It is very difficult to accept that I no longer own or control the businesses that I spent my life building up.”

He said that after a share receiver had seized control of the group in April, he had expected to be contacted and that the bank would want to avail of his expertise.

However after a few weeks he realised this was not going to happen.

A friend in Derrylin then offered him the use of offices in a business park. He signed a lease agreement and moved in, in May of this year.

He attends the office to deal with the litigation his family is involved with, he said, but also spent time thinking about new business ventures and talking to people about the possibility of these.

However these possible ventures were at an embryonic stage and he had not felt he had to include them in his statement of affairs when filing for bankruptcy.

Gabriel Moss QC, for IBRC, said Mr Quinn was telling the court he had not mentioned the lease in his filings for bankruptcy because he believed it was of little value. This was “the lamest excuse one could ever get,” he said.

He said either Mr Quinn decided not to mention the lease even though it existed, which was perjury, or the lease had not existed at the time of his bankruptcy application, and was a “forgery”.

Mr Moss said Mr Quinn’s centre of main interests was his home in Ballyconnell, Co Cavan, and not Derrylin.

He said Mr Quinn, in his filing for bankruptcy, had described himself as unemployed.