Bank seeks repayment of €1.2m from Lynn client

A COUPLE who were clients of missing solicitor Michael Lynn are facing proceedings by a bank over loans issued to them to buy properties in relation to which Mr Lynn allegedly gave multiple undertakings. The couple have to date been ordered to repay more than €3.6 million in loans to two other banks.

Last March, Air Corps officer John Mulkearns and his wife Lorna, Iona Road, Glasnevin, Dublin, were ordered by Mr Justice Peter Kelly at the Commercial Court to repay €1.6 million lent to them by IIB Homeloans Ltd to buy six properties in relation to which Mr Lynn is claimed to have given multiple undertakings.

That order followed proceedings in January in which Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank secured judgment for more than €2 million against them in relation to other loans secured on the same properties.

In the latest proceedings, admitted to the list of the Commercial Court yesterday by Mr Justice Peter Kelly, Permanent TSB is seeking orders against Mr Mulkearns requiring repayment of a loan of €1.2 million.

The bank claims it advanced €1.2 million to Mr Mulkearns to invest in properties on his undertaking to provide security in the form of the house at Iona Road, Glasnevin, Dublin.

It claims Mr Mulkearns failed to put in place the required security over the property and also failed to disclose that he was not the sole owner of the property but that it was in the name of himself and his wife.

The bank has brought a number of proceedings. One set of proceedings is against Mr Mulkearns himself, a second set is jointly against Mr and Mrs Mulkearns, who are separately represented, and a third set is against the couple, Fiona McAleenan, a solicitor in Mr Lynn's firm with an address in Bettystown, Co Meath, and Mr Lynn himself.

The judge said he would deal with the bank's application for judgment against Mr Mulkearns for €1.2 million on June 9th next and he adjourned the proceedings against the couple, Ms McAleenan and Mr Lynn for directions in July.

In the third set of proceedings, the judge ordered the couple to repay to the bank €260,000, plus interest, lent in September 2005 and secured on a property at Hillcrest Park, Lucan, Co Dublin. The bank claimed the security was not put in place as agreed and that the couple had offered the same property as part-security to three other credit institutions.