A High Court action by the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) alleging unjust enrichment against a company connected with businessman Jim Kennedy has been adjourned to Friday as a result of Mr Kennedy’s hospitalisation following his arrest by gardaí.
Mr Justice Kevin Feeney was told today Mr Kennedy was due to undergo tests in hospital where he was taken after he became ill while in Garda custody following his arrest yesterday.
Mr Kennedy was arrested on Dublin’s quays after he had left court following the first day of proceedings by Cab against Jackson Way Properties Ltd (JWPL) in which the bureau alleges the company was unjustly enriched as a result of the rezoning of land in Carrickmines, Dublin, in 1997.
The court was told on Tuesday Mr Kennedy denies claims by former lobbyist Frank Dunlop that Mr Kennedy gave IR£25,000 (€31,750) to Mr Dunlop in 1992 to buy councillors’ votes for rezoning lands at Carrickmines. The lands were rezoned in 1997, valued at €53 million in 2005 and their latest valuation is €2.6 million, Cab says.
When the case was due to resume this morning, Martin Hayden SC, for Mr Kennedy, told Mr Justice Kevin Feeney it was an understatement to say the arrest of Mr Kennedy caused a “spot of bother”. Mr Kennedy was in St Vincent’s Hospital directly as a result of his arrest, counsel added.
Mr Kennedy’s arrest by Cab officers related to two corrupt payments allegedly made to councillors, matters that were also the subject of the court proceedings, Mr Hayden said.
Counsel said he needed to take instructions from Mr Kennedy, particularly as to whether his side may bring an application against the bureau for abuse of power or interference with the administration justice. There was also an issue as to whether the High Court proceedings could continue.
Mr Hayden said he also wanted Cab to explain when the decision to arrest was taken and who took it. Mr Kennedy had returned to Ireland two weeks ago to give evidence in the case and was arrested, not by ordinary gardaí, but by members of Cab, two of whom left court and followed him yesterday, counsel said.
Mr Kennedy had a right to his good name and had come back to meet the case in the light of serious allegations made against him, counsel said.
Mr Hayden said he was also concerned a Cab application in the run-up to these proceedings was “a strategy” to get Mr Kennedy back into the country. Counsel for Cab said that claim was completely without foundation.
Following an adjournment until this afternoon to allow Mr Hayden take instructions, counsel informed the judge Mr Kennedy was still in hospital but, on the advice of doctors, he had been unable to speak to him.
Mr Kennedy was on the angiogram list for yesterday afternoon, and doctors had said they did not want matters made worse by his lawyers, counsel said. In the circumstances, he asked that the matter be put back to Friday.
Mr Justice Feeney granted the adjournment and said he could be updated on Mr Kennedy’s situation tomorrow.
If Mr Hayden wanted an order restraining gardai from further questioning Mr Kennedy when he left hospital, as his questioning has only been suspended while he is there, then counsel would have to make a formal written application to the court, the judge added. That could be done today tomorrow if required, the judge said.
The judge rejected Mr Hayden’s application to lift a freezing order restraining sale of the all of the Carrickmines lands owned by JWPL on grounds the unjust enrichment claims are now confined to 38 acres of an original 108 acres. The judge said he would deal with that issue in the full hearing of the case.
Diarmuid McGuinness SC, for CAB, told the court yesterday updated valuations obtained valued an acre of land at €50,000, and an industrially zoned acre at €200,000. This meant the actual unjust enrichment valuation of the 17 acres today was €2.6m, not the €5.2m figure put before the court on Tuesday, he said.