A businessman who “forgot” to list dozens of properties in a statement of his assets has been given two more weeks by a High Court judge to explain why he shouldn’t be jailed over failure to comply with court orders to adhere to a June 2006 contract with Esso Ireland to buy a service station in Tallaght for €5.3 million.
While John O’Connor had accumulated a “very large and global portfolio” of properties, these had dropped in value very considerably, and a rent roll did not come close to meeting repayments sought from banks, his counsel Colm MacEochaidh SC said today.
Mr O’Connor (who has paid off some €1 million of the €5.3 million contract) needed more time to prove, “if he could write the cheque” for the money owed to Esso, he would, counsel added.
Allowing two weeks to Mr O’Connor to provide information sought by Esso, Mr Justice Peter Kelly said there were “disturbing aspects “to the matter.
A previous affidavit of assets of Mr O’Connor’s was short of so much information the court found it difficult to believe Mr O’Connor could genuinely forget such information, the judge added.
However, he was glad to be told, since the matter was before the court last week, there had been progress in that a meeting had taken place between the sides and proposals were discussed. Esso wanted information related to those proposals and the court would allow that.
Mr O’Connor of “Salzburg”, Ardilea, Clonskeagh, Co Dublin, is facing two motions from Esso for his committal to prison for contempt of court orders, including alleged failure to fully discover his assets.
Eamon Marray, for Esso, said neither Esso nor the court had enough information at this stage to know whether Mr O’Connor was either unable or unwilling to perform the contract. That information was required before Esso could proceed with its motions and, on that basis, counsel asked to adjourn the motions for a “well-defined” period the motions.
Esso had received a further affidavit last Friday from Mr O’Connor attempting to explain the up-to-date position on his assets and why all those were not included in his first affidavit of discovery in the case. Objective information about banks, mortgages and charges, and other material was required to establish whether all that was said was factually accurate, the court heard.
Esso regarded Mr O’Connor’s conduct to date as an effort to frustrate Esso’s efforts to secure compliance with the court orders and the additional time was needed now due to Mr O’Connor’s failures, counsel added.
Mr MacEochaidh SC, for Mr O’Connor, said this was not a case of “won’t pay” but rather one of “can’t pay” and his side needed time to prove Mr O’Connor was in the latter category. Since the matter was before the court, proposals were put to Esso as to how Mr O’Connor would meet the court orders.
An accountant had also confirmed to Esso Mr O’Connor cannot pay the sums sought, and Mr O’Connor had instructed a valuer to value the various properties in a portfolio acquired over the past 20 years. Esso was seeking substantiation of what was said and documents held by banks and his side would seek that information, counsel added.
When the case was before Mr Justice Kelly last week, he described Mr O’Connor as having “a frenetic obsession” with acquiring properties across Ireland, Europe and the US. The judge described as “incredible” that Mr O’Connor, in an earlier statement of his assets, omitted as an “oversight”, a list of properties, including 27 units at County Chambers, Northampton, England, and other properties in Counties Dublin, Meath; Kildare and Wexford.
Mr O’Connor said he “totally forgot” about those assets, had insufficient time to get together all the information required and this was “a stressful time”. He has estimated his assets now at some €133.3 million, “known liabilities” of €168.9 million, a deficit of some €35.5 million and a personal income of €90,000 a year, and he says he cannot complete the Esso contract immediately.
A schedule of other assets of Mr O’Connor’s disclosed many of these are subject to substantial loans. They include properties and sites in Sweden, Brussels, Nice, Portugal; Dublin, Meath, Wicklow and Wexford.
