IIB BANK has secured a court order requiring a property developer to repay some €14.4 million in loans granted for property investment and secured by undertakings from the developer's solicitor, Thomas Byrne, who has been struck off the roll of solicitors.

However, as John Kelly is disputing IIB's entitlement to some €6.8 million of the €14.4 million sought, Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan granted a stay requiring repayment of that disputed amount until the court determines Mr Kelly's claim.

Mr Kelly, Hunter's Moon, Kilquade, Co Wicklow, claims the bank should not be entitled to judgment for €6.8 million because, he claims, it had paid that amount to Mr Byrne without checking that he had honoured undertakings to first discharge Mr Kelly's liabilities to the EBS Building Society.

Mr Kelly claims he never received the money or the benefit of it. He claims IIB facilitated a drawdown of the €6.8 million without ensuring the terms of the loan agreement were adhered to - including putting legal charges in favour of the EBS over several properties. Instead of adhering to the clear terms of the loan facility letter, Mr Kelly claims the bank seemed to have accepted an undertaking from Mr Byrne to discharge a mortgage in favour of the EBS. Mr Kelly claims that Mr Byrne had assured him in January 2007 that he was "taking care" of this.

Mr Kelly further claims he only became aware in October 2007 that the loan to the EBS had not been redeemed and that he had not previously noticed that repayments to the EBS were being deducted from his accounts.

IIB has rejected those claims and argued that it cannot be regarded as being in some way a trustee over the funds in question.

After hearing IIB's application for judgment yesterday, and following an outline of Mr Kelly's defence by Patrick Hunt SC, Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan made directions for the exchange of legal documents in advance of a hearing on the disputed sum.

Earlier, the judge dealt with proceedings by EBS to recover possession of properties valued at €11 million in an effort to meet Mr Kelly's €22 million debt to the society arising from loans to Mr Kelly, including loans secured on undertakings of Mr Byrne.

Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan granted Patrick Leonard, for EBS, orders for possession of the properties at James Street, Dublin 8, including properties rented by Dublin City Council to tenants as part of the Fatima Regeneration Scheme, and properties at Hill Street, Dublin 1.

The EBS claimed Mr Byrne was to put in place securities in favour of the bank over various properties but either no securities were put in place or there were such delays that it had lost its priority to a first charge over such properties.