A FORMER Fine Gael town councillor accused of accepting corrupt payments yesterday told a court that when he told gardaí there was no “free meal” in relation to an €80,000 payment he received from a developer, he was referring to the fact that he would have to pay interest on the loan.
Fred Forsey jnr (43), Abbeyside, Dungarvan, denies six charges relating to his receipt of a total of €80,000 from a property developer in August, October and December 2006. He is charged with corruptly accepting €60,000, €10,000 and €10,000 as inducements or rewards while a member of Dungarvan Town Council to make representations to officials and members of Waterford County Council in support of a proposed development which was the subject of a planning application.
Mr Forsey is also charged with corruptly accepting those same sums as inducements or rewards while he was on Dungarvan Town Council and speaking at a council meeting in support of a proposed development which was the subject of a planning application.
On the sixth day yesterday of his trial at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court, Mr Forsey was cross-examined by Denis Vaughan Buckley SC.
He told how he was questioned by detectives about his relationship with the property developer following his arrest at a wedding in Dungarvan on July 31st, 2009.
Mr Forsey agreed that gardaí had asked him if he thought the developer was “a tough and hard businessman”, but he initially questioned the reply recorded by gardaí in the memo of interview where it stated that he had replied: “Of course, there was no free meal.”
Mr Forsey said that “free meal” was not a phrase he would use but if he did use it, he was referring to the fact that he would have to pay interest on the €80,000 which he had received from the developer as it was given to him as a loan.
Asked by Mr Vaughan Buckley why “a shrewd businessman” whom he hardly knew would give him €80,000 in an unsecured loan, Mr Forsey said the man had helped a lot of people in the area and when he agreed initially to give him €60,000, it was “just like a miracle coming true”.
He had rung the property developer in August 2006 as he was in severe financial difficulty after he had been unable to obtain a bank remortgage on his property because he was in arrears in his mortgage repayments. He was also facing repossession of his car over failure to make payments.
Mr Forsey told gardaí in the memo of interview that he had filled out an application form for a remortgage at AIB Dungarvan, but he accepted that both the manager of AIB Dungarvan and the assistant manager of Permanent TSB Dungarvan had told the court that he never filled out loan or mortgage application forms at either bank.
Mr Forsey said he was very confused and exhausted when gardaí arrested him as he had only five hours’ sleep in the previous 48 hours and he was “probably like a zombie”. He was unable to sleep in the cell in Tramore Garda station as it was “absolutely filthy and the smell off it was disgusting”.
Mr Forsey accepted that his phone records showed that he tried to ring the property developer 48 times on December 10th, 2006, but he denied this was because his now former wife was threatening to go the Garda about the payments that he had received from the developer, who was seeking to have lands rezoned.
The case continues.
