COMMERCIAL COURT proceedings against businessman Jimmy Guerin and his wife have been settled with ACCBank. Terms included the couple’s consent to €2.5 million judgment orders against them over unpaid loans.
Rossa Fanning, for ACC, told Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday that an agreement had been reached between the sides earlier that morning. Under that agreement, the judge entered judgment in the sum of €2,519,017 against the defendants.
The case was brought against Mr Guerin, described as a financial adviser and entrepreneur, and his wife Louann, Thormanby Lawns, Howth, Co Dublin. He is a brother of the murdered journalist Veronica Guerin.
The case related to a number of loans including, one of about €700,000 to refinance the couple’s home.
ACC alleged it gave four loan facilities to the defendants beginning in 2006, including a €700,000 loan to “term out” existing debt owed to the bank. It claimed it obtained security from the couple for that first loan of €700,000 which included an extension of the mortgage and charge, dated March 2005, on their house at Thormanby Lawns.
With the borrowers allegedly stopping repayments in November 2008, the bank demanded repayment in full, plus interest, last February. No repayment was made, it said.
The bank also lent the couple €260,000 in April 2007 for seven acres of land in Castlebellingham, Co Louth, and €1.08 million in July 2007 to buy Sion House and a site at Main Street, Rush. A fourth loan, for €150,000, was given to finance site works and renovations of Sion House, it claimed.