ACC in settlement with Lynn's wife

ACC Bank will receive €4.2 million following the settlement of part of legal proceedings relating to the sale of missing solicitor Michael Lynn’s family home.

Under a settlement reached today, Mr Lynn’s wife Brid Murphy (34) has also succeeded in greatly reducing her potential €11 million liabilities to various banks over loans for the purchase of the house in Howth, Co Dublin.

ACC, which was accepted to have a prior claim arising from a €3.8 million mortgage granted by it for the purchase of Glenlion House, will get more than €4.2 million of the proceeds of the sale.

Ms Murphy, Bank of Scotland Ireland and perhaps others will be left to fight over the remaining estimated €450,000.

The house was bought for €5.5 million but sold at auction earlier this year to meet some of Mr Lynn’s estimated €80 million liabilities.

At one point, Ms Murphy was facing claims for some €11 million over three separate loans for the purchase of Glenlion House, Thormanby Road, which were obtained from ACC, BOSI and Irish Nationwide Building Society in early 2007.

Each bank had loaned sums of around €3.8 million.

Ms Murphy, who was earning €46,000 a year as a nurse when she met Mr Lynn in 2004 and who gave up work in early 2006, claimed her husband conducted all financial dealings for the house and that her signature was forged on certain loan documents

She also claimed she was aware only of the loan from Bank of Scotland Ireland and that she had no liability to the other two banks.

The settlement of her case relating to ACC Bank involved the bank accepting that Ms Murphy has a 50 per cent interest in Glenlion but Ms Murphy also accepting the Bank has an equitable charge over that interest.

Ms Murphy is unlikely to receive, at best, more than €450,000 from the proceeds of sale of Glenlion.

Ms Murphy (34) was in court today and appeared happy with the outcome of the proceedings, reached after talks during the morning between the sides.

She had said in evidence that she remains in touch with her husband, who has been struck off the roll of solicitors and fined €2 million, and had spent a weekend with him in Sofia, Bulgaria, earlier this month before he left for Portugal.