A COUPLE and their company have sued Dolmen Stockbrokers for losses of more than €1 million allegedly incurred through unauthorised use of the plaintiffs’ securities trading accounts to enter into transactions for Dolmen’s own benefit and the alleged failure to provide indemnities.

Patrick Purcell claims he agreed to enter a series of transactions between 2006 and 2008 on behalf of the plaintiffs as a result of emotional pressure and/or undue influence placed upon him by Stephen Tynan, director of stockbroking with Dolmen.

He claims Mr Tynan assured him the plaintiffs would be indemnified against any losses suffered as a result but to date had failed to do so. As a result, he claims, the plaintiffs had suffered losses of more than €855,000.

It is also claimed that Dolmen, through Mr Tynan, entered a series of unauthorised transactions using the plaintiffs’ accounts in which shares in various companies were bought and sold using the plaintiffs’ accounts without their prior knowledge, consent or instruction.

The plaintiffs claim their various accounts were used for buying, selling and otherwise trading in equities, contracts for difference and other securities instruments.

It is claimed that the plaintiffs suffered €350,000 in losses as a result of allegedly unauthorised dealings in shares of several companies, including Transeuro Energy Corporation plc and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mr Tynan had failed to abide by the relevant trading rules and regulations, counsel for the plaintiffs said.

Counsel for Patrick and Audrie Purcell, Victoria Lodge, Victoria Road, Killiney, Co Dublin, and Purcell Brothers Ltd, Herbert Street, Dublin, applied yesterday for the case to be admitted to the Commercial Court.

However, Mr Justice Peter Kelly refused after finding the case had not demonstrated the urgency required for admission to the Commercial Court whose lists, he noted, were growing by the month. The decision means the case will proceed through the ordinary High Court list.

His decision did not prevent the parties availing of Commercial Court procedures in that list.

In opposing transfer, Rossa Fanning, for Dolmen Stockbrokers, said it had taken the plaintiffs some eight months to compile the statement of claim and his side would also need considerable time to set out a detailed defence.

This was a claim for trading losses and these were “two a penny” as many people would like an indemnity from their stockbrokers over what has gone wrong in the last two years, Mr Fanning remarked.