Seán FitzPatrick bounces back from bankruptcy to plan new-build
Colin Coyle
November 24 2019, 12:01am, The Sunday Times
FitzPatrick: applicationREUTERS
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Former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick, who exited bankruptcy in 2014, has applied to build a two-storey, four-bedroom home in Greystones, close to where he currently lives on the Co Wicklow town’s Whitshed Road.
A planning application in the name of FitzPatrick and his wife, Catriona, was lodged on Monday. The couple want to demolish a fire-damaged, flat-roofed cottage known as Meadow Garden at the rear of their home and replace it with a two-storey house.
The probable build cost of a four-bedroom home in Greystones, based on estimates from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, is €230,000 to €300,000, depending on the property’s specification.
FitzPatrick, who resigned from Anglo in December 2008 amid revelations over hidden loans, was made bankrupt in 2010 with debts of €147m and assets of only €47m. Records from the Registry of Deeds show a court order was made in May resulting in the transfer of Meadow Gardens on Farm Lane, which was valued at €550,000 in 2010, from FitzPatrick’s bankruptcy trustee Christopher Lehane to FitzPatrick’s wife.
It was one of a series of properties that Catriona FitzPatrick claimed she had an interest in following her husband’s bankruptcy. In court last year she argued that about €40m of his investments were funded from loan accounts in their joint names, meaning she had a beneficial interest in them regardless of her husband’s bankruptcy. Both Lehane and Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), which acquired Anglo’s loans following its collapse, denied she had any interest in the properties.
IBRC took a separate legal action against Catriona FitzPatrick, while Lehane brought proceedings against her and the couple’s three adult children, David, Jonathan, and Sara FitzPatrick. At a court hearing, it was stated that, while Seán FitzPatrick made all the investments in his sole name, all of the loans were funded in both his and his wife’s name, while payments were made through their joint account.
All of the cases were settled last year with the terms not disclosed in court. It later emerged that Catriona FitzPatrick was granted permission to buy the couple’s family home, Camaderry on Whitshed Road, back from his bankruptcy trustee for €430,000.
It is not known if any money exchanged hands in return for Meadow Garden. At the time of her husband’s bankruptcy, Catriona FitzPatrick’s half-share in the couple’s joint bank account, which was out of the reach of Lehane, was about €1.1m.
Neither FitzPatrick nor Lehane responded to queries.
We are a fucking jokeshop. If the yanks were going to do someone they’d be done in 6 months.
