A couple who owned a well-known pub-restaurant in Co Galway have spent €900,000 on living expenses from proceeds of property sales but haven’t used any of the proceeds to reduce a bank debt of almost €20 million, it has been claimed at the Commercial Court.

William and Sheila Moran, who owned Moran’s on the Weir in Kilcogan, must answer a number of questions about their expenditure within the next two weeks as part of AIB’s bid to recover the €20 million, Mr Justice John Hedigan directed.

AIB obtained judgment against them in 2012 arising out of default on loans for property investment.

Despite selling off unencumbered property assets since then, including the Kilcogan pub, for a total of €2.8 million,  none of the money has been used to reduce the debt to AIB, it is claimed.

Bernard Caroll, a manager in of AIB’s financial solutions group, said in an affidavit the €2.8 million came from the sale of the pub (for €1.5 million), an apartment (for €943,000) and sale of loan rights (€370,000) in a Polish company called Grudnia.

Some of it was used to pay the Revenue Commissioners (€415,000) and the Morans’ professional advisors (€211,000), leaving around €2.26 million available to them, it is claimed.

The bank had learned, between November 2011 and December 2014, some €0.9m, was withdrawn from their Bank of Ireland account, representing an average monthly expenditure of €24,000 per month, he said.

Of this, around €250,000 was paid for “future educational expenses and living expenses” of three of their children including €60,000 to 18-year-old Brian Moran while 14-year-old William Moran junior received two payments totalling €65,000 in January and February 2012, Mr Carroll said.

There were also further transactions relating to the Polish company and a Latvian company called Invest Agra SIA, he said.

The Morans were previously in court for cross-examination by AIB about their assets when a judge ordered their advisers to co-operate with the bank in relation to providing information about their assets.

On Monday, Ciarán Lewis BL, for AIB, said they have continued to fail to answer questions about transactions and their living expenses.

A solicitor for the questions posed by AIB had been answered. Mr Moran is seriously ill and his wife is a housewife who has no involvement in her husband’s financial affairs, the solicitor added.

Mr Justice Hedigan said, having read Mr Carroll’s affidavit, the questions had not been answered satisfactorily.  It was not sufficient to just say money had been spent without vouching for how it had been spent, he said.

Adjourning the matter for two weeks, the judge said that, in the interim, the questions should be “answered in detail”.