Solicitor Michael Lynn is being sought for arrest after failing to appear in the High Court again today over property dealings on which he has amassed estimated debts of €80 million.
Gardaí were ordered to bring Mr Lynn to the High Court this morning after he failed to show up yesterday. They went to arrest him at his home yesterday, but he is believed to be outside the country.
He failed to appear again this morning, and the case has now been adjourned until January 14th.
Mr Lynn did not appear in court yesterday for his cross-examination by the Law Society, scheduled to begin at 11am. The solicitor was directed by the President of the High Court, Mr Justice Richard Johnson, to be brought before the court at 2pm, but he failed to appear.
The judge adjourned the case to this morning and said that if Mr Lynn turned up, he was to be kept in custody until the hearing.
"To allay the anxiety of the public in particular, this thing should be dealt with as quickly as possible," Justice Johnson said.
Mr Lynn drew down multiple mortgages on the same properties from several lenders using solicitors' undertakings, a mechanism used in most residential property transactions that allowed him to borrow without immediately registering a bank's loan charge against a property.
Mr Lynn was due in court yesterday to face two days of cross-examination on six of his property dealings, including his purchase of Glenlion House in Howth, Co Dublin, which he intended to use as his new family home.
Mr Lynn took out at least three mortgages on the property - each for a large part of the house's value - within days of each other in April 2007.
When Mr Lynn failed to appear in court yesterday, the judge ordered his arrest and that the order be served at his home in St Alban's Park in Sandymount, Dublin 4; on his wife, who might know his whereabouts; and on his newly appointed solicitors, London firm Merriman White.
Counsel for Mr Lynn's wife, Bríd Murphy, told the court yesterday - after she had been served with the judge's order - that she last saw her husband on Monday evening at Merriman White's offices in London.
The court heard earlier that Mr Lynn "seemed to have jettisoned his lawyers". Merriman White is the third legal firm to represent Mr Lynn after his second team of lawyers stepped down yesterday.