An interim injunction restraining an accountant from reducing his assets below £890,000 was altered in the High Court yesterday, allowing him to apply to the court for permission for the sale of certain properties.
Mr Paul Gallagher SC, counsel for Guinness and Mahon (Ireland) Ltd, told Mr Justice Quirke the injunction had been granted to that bank last Friday. He was seeking an interlocutory injunction until the hearing of a claim by the bank against Mr Thomas Delaney for £1.4 million. Mr Gallagher said the claim related to £723,177 on foot of a guarantee which Mr Delaney, of Iona Road, Glasnevin, Dublin, allegedly signed on behalf of a company, Krisfield Ltd, and £679,683 on foot of a number of loan accounts Mr Delaney held at the bank.
Mr Justice Quirke was told the bank estimated that various securities it held on foot of the loans would not exceed £520,000 and that the bank was concerned that assets which might meet the remainder of the money outstanding would be disposed of.
Mr Richard Robinson, director of private banking with Guinness and Mahon (Ireland) Ltd, told the court the major liabilities relating to Mr Delaney's personal accounts and Krisfield Ltd involved overdrafts given for business purposes.
He alleged these accounts were used by Mr Delaney to make regular, substantial payments either to himself or to other companies he controlled, including his accountancy firm, Delaney and Associates.
Mr Delaney, in an affidavit, denied any wrongdoing or that he was attempting to diminish his assets to frustrate a judgment which the bank had obtained against him and which he was seeking to have set aside.
He denied he had signed an unlimited guarantee to cover loans advanced to his brother John's company, Krisfield Ltd, now in liquidation, or that he was a shadow director of that company. He said the bank's allegations were entirely false. The bank's application for an injunction was adjourned on the application of Mr Delaney's counsel, Mr Shane Murphy, until January 12th to allow him to file further affidavits dealing in detail with the allegations. Mr Delaney said the bank had failed to identify any evidence to suggest he had disposed of assets or attempted to dispose of them to prevent it from executing its judgment against him.