Mr James Gogarty said hands were shaken on a deal to sell land in Swords, Co Dublin to Mr Michael Bailey and Bovale Ltd but the financial controller of the Murphy group said he was taking control and later sold it to Princess Homes Ltd.
Mr Gogarty said they had sold the Forest Road land at Swords. The man involved in that was Mr Bailey. He had dealings with Mr Bailey over Forest Road in 1988. "It was a bit of mystery to a certain extent. Senior [Mr Joe Murphy] wouldn't let the right hand know what the left hand was doing."
He and Mr Denis McArdle understood from Mr Murphy that they had the authority to sell Forest Road and Mr Murphy had mentioned Mr Bailey in that context. Mr Bailey negotiated with him and Mr McArdle "and we thought we'd sold the lands to Bovale".
They organised a meeting in their solicitor's offices to exchange contracts with Bovale. He [Mr Gogarty] went along and met Mr Bailey, contracts were exchanged and hands were shaken.
Afterwards, he said to Mr McArdle that he should ring Mr Roger Copsey, financial controller, to tell him what happened. "And, Jesus, Copsey went for him and said: `You had no authority to sell them lands at all.' He said: `I am dealing with them.'
"McArdle left down the phone and said: `Jim, we're in trouble, we are shaken on the contract' and I said: `Well, f... Copsey', and I said: `Well, I'm finished with that.' "
Some time later, Mr McArdle told him that Mr Copsey had sold the lands to Princess Homes. Mr Bailey was a director of Princess Homes but had no equity in it. Whatever relationship Mr Bailey had with Princess Homes, he [Mr Gogarty] thought the deal was completed sometime in 1988.
