PAYMENTS he received in offshore bank accounts were made at the discretion of Mr Ben Dunne Mr Lowry told the tribunal. He said he had tried for years to regularise the method of payments from Dunnes Stores and his failure to do so was the cause of the "nightmare he had lived over six to eight months.
He told counsel for the tribunal, Mr Denis McCullough SC, that he did not know at the time that he was the owner of a company in the Isle Of Man. He also denied a suggestion by Mr McCullough that he was absolutely and completely in Mr Dunne's pocket
Asked about a payment of Pounds 25,000 sterling which Dunnes Stores made to him, into a Bank of Ireland account in the Isle of Man in October 1990, Mr Lowry said he received a number of such payments from Mr Dunne.
"The manner in which I was paid was at the discretion of Mr Ben Dunne and Dunnes Stores," said the witness. All of the payments to him were "strictly and solely" for refrigeration services provided for Dunnes. Mr McCullough asked why the Pounds 25,000, which was a bonus payment for Mr Lowry, had been made outside the country. Mr Lowry said he did not know. "That account was there, I never used that account personally, I never traded off any of those accounts, I never had any transaction through that or the other account which came up here at the tribunal previously, which was Badgeworth.
"The money was paid in that manner and if you look at the situation I wasn't the only one who was paid in that manner. The Price Waterhouse report identified in the region of Pounds 3.5 million of such payments. I was the only one who was publicly identified with that kind of payment and I don't know why. 1 would much prefer if the payment was made directly to me."
Mr McCullough asked if he had said to Mr Dunne, that he would prefer to be paid directly, so it would be above board and he could deal with it in a straight-forward manner.
The witness said on numerous occasions he would have made attempts to regularise his position with Dunnes Stores. It was not Just in relation to the Pounds 25,000 payment, but all payments.
Mr McCullough asked, was it not a fact he had never said a word to Mr Dunne about the fact he was paying this money into an overseas account? Mr Lowry replied he was due money for the services he had given to Dunnes Stores, and it was up to the company "to decide on what fashion they were going to pay me".
"Yes, over time I certainly questioned it. I sought numerous meetings and I hope that during the course of my evidence I will be able to outline the continuous and strenuous efforts I made to regularise this position to ensure that my business relationship with Dunnes Stores was on a sure footing and to ensure that it was finalised to my satisfaction and to Dunnes Stores's satisfaction and to the satisfaction of everyone involved," he added.
Mr Lowry asked counsel to accept that he did not initiate the payment of Pounds 25,000, or the other payments of Pounds 40,000 and Pounds 50,000 which had been mentioned at the tribunal. "I did not ask for the money to be paid in that way and I was never comfortable with the monies being paid in that way and I asked (on) countless occasions that the matter would be regularised so that I could finalise my business with Dunnes Stores."
Mr Lowry said it was important to understand the context in which the payments were made. The total payments he had received from Dunnes Stores - cash payments, bonus payments, consultancy fees and the payments Mr McCullough was now referring to - added up to Pounds 718,000. However, the total turnover of his company was about Pounds 25 million, and if one added even "the smallest percentage mark-up to that" it would come to about Pounds 4 million. "I'm saying that I certainly wasn't overpaid," Mr Lowry said.
Mr McCullough said: "But then your real complaint Mr Lowry, your real complaint is not that this process of paying you into overseas accounts and paying you in this undisclosed way, not that that was irregular or that it in any way compromised you or reflected in any way on your honesty or integrity, but it wasn't enough. Isn't that the point?"
Mr Lowry said no, it wasn't the point. His main consideration, and it was important he had the opportunity to explain it. He had made regular attempts from an early stage to formalise the agreement with Dunnes Stores.
He had asked Mr Dunne on a number of occasions to do that and his response had been: "Do you not trust me? My word is my bond." He had made several attempts to meet Mr Dunne and was unsuccessful. Evidence given by the group's former chief accountant, Mr Michael Irwin, showed that he (Mr Lowry) had him "plagued" for a meeting to finalise his affairs with Dunnes Stores.
When the new management of the company took over he went directly to Mrs Margaret Heffernan and told her about the payments which had been made and about the construction of his house by Dunnes Stores. He had also gone to Mr Frank Dunne and the situation was finally regularised in March last year.
He regretted that progress had not been made earlier and accepted his share of the responsibility for that. "I have publicly apologised for that. I have suffered immensely. Both my business life, my financial life, my private life, every aspect of my life has been the subject of prolonged and intense public scrutiny and I'm now at the stage where I hope that I've made sufficient progress that I can finalise it, that I can make amends for the mistakes that I have made and that I can return my life and that of all those with me and associated with me, as I said, to some semblance of normality.
The chairman, Mr Justice McCracken, asked what happened to the Pounds 25,000 sterling payment, and Mr Lowry said he transferred it to his own account in the Irish Permanent in Cork.
Mr Lowry said the only discussion he had with Mr Dunne at the time about any of the payments in the Isle of Man was in relation to the Pounds 40,000 payment to Badgeworth. Mr Dunne informed him he had given an instruction for an account to be opened to accept the money on Mr Lowry's behalf.
Mr McCullough put it to Mr Lowry that in a letter to him in August 1991, Mr Dunne's solicitor, Mr Noel Smyth, told him the account was being set up, and the letter referred to a meeting he had had with Mr Smyth the previous Wednesday.
Mr Lowry said he could not recall the meeting, but counsel put it to him that he met Mr Smyth and discussed setting up the company, and got a letter subsequently telling him it had been set up and seeking the payment of certain fees. "You don't deny that all of that happened?"
Mr Lowry said he did not deny that it happened. "All I would say to you is, you did mention that I got an invoice and a request for payment. I didn't pay that money because I genuinely at the time didn't believe or didn't know for a fact that that was my company."
"Subsequent to the evidence that was given at the tribunal I do now accept that I was the beneficial owner of that." The Pounds 40,000 in the account was subsequently transferred on the instructions of Mr Michael Irwin to the Irish Permanent in Cork.