Wexford accountant Hynes still fighting on all fronts

Wexford accountant Alan Hynes was dressed in trousers, pullover and shirt when he represented himself in the case where Bank of Scotland is looking for a €7.5 million judgment against him and his wife Noreen.

The case comes up for hearing later this year and if it goes against them, the judgment order will take its place alongside ones already issued for more than €6 million. The complaints against Hynes upheld by a recent disciplinary tribunal of the Chartered Accountants Regulatory Board (Carb) included one that he had outstanding judgment debts for that amount.

Hynes urged the court that he and his wife be allowed to include in their counterclaims against the bank certain allegations linked to two other Bank of Scotland loans, for a total of more than €48 million.

In relation to the larger loan, for €40.7 million, the couple wanted to explore issues to do with fire safety defects found in the Dundrum apartment development for which the money was issued and the claim that a quantity surveyor was supposed to be monitoring the development on behalf of the bank. As Declan McGrath SC, for the bank, pointed out, this could delay the pending hearing, with the bank most likely left hanging for the resultant costs should they win the case.

That seems likely given the judgment orders already in existence and the fact that the Carb tribunal was told that the couple’s main income comes from a stipend to Hynes from the Institute of Chartered Accountants’ benevolence fund. The couple are “impecunious”, the tribunal was told by Alan Cormack, for Hynes.

When Mr Justice Brian McGovern ruled against the couple on the counterclaim issue, Hynes asked for a stay. The judge refused, but said Hynes was free to appeal. The accountant has already told this newspaper that he intends appealing the Carb tribunal’s findings against him.

So the impecunious Hynes is clocking up legal costs in two expensive forums while investors in his various collapsed property schemes nurse their wounds and, in the case of the Laurels development, some people are left owning apartments the developer says are a fire hazard. The economy may have turned the corner, but some people are still hurting badly.