The liquidator of Tuskar Asset Management plc is seeking court orders disqualifying Alan Hynes, the “driving force” behind the property investment group, from involvement in the affairs of any company due to alleged unfitness.

There was “ample evidence” Mr Hynes was not a fit person to be involved in the management of a company and to show he was guilty of fraud, Gary McCarthy SC, for liquidator Neil Hughes, told Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne today.

Mr Hughes claims Mr Hynes “largely determined” the strategy of the Tuskar group but had failed to adequately explain where €3.1m of shareholders funds went after it was wound up in 2009.

TAM plc was the holding company for a number of companies involved in the buying and developing land for investment with the aim of achieving capital growth for its investors and Mr Hynes was its driving force, Mr Hughes said.

Around €17m in total was invested in TAM before the property collapse in sums of between €100,000 and €1m with much of that the pension funds and savings of professionals including doctors and solicitors, Mr McCarthy said.

The assets of people who had invested their life savings had been “wiped out by the actions of Mr Hynes”, he said. The public must be protected from him having regard to his past deeds and conduct, he added.

Mr Hughes is seeking orders under Section 160 of the Companies Act disqualifying Mr Hynes from invlvement in the affairs of any company for such time as the court decides. Alternatively, orders are sought under Section 150 restricting his involvement with any companies unless they meet certain capital requirements.

In opposing the application, Mr Hynes, Westwinds, Crosstown, Co Wexford, says he did not benefit from the collapse of the company and has also denied claims he was involved in fictitious accounting.

His barrister Alan Cormack said a €3m judgment had been obtained by AIB against Mr Hynes and his wife Noreen and they had received no value from the liquidation. Mr Hynes was pursuing his former solicitors over this, counsel added.

TAM grew from investment projects and co-ownerships undertaken by clients of Mr Hynes’s firm, Hynes and Co Financial Consultants Ltd of Wexford, which itself was liquidated in March 2009, Mr Hughes said in an affidavit.

Mr Hynes’s certificate to practice as a chartered accountant was subsequently withdrawn by his professional body’s regulatory board, Mr Hughes said.

Substantial amounts of funds were moved in and out of TAM at the direction of Mr Hynes who in July 2007 had been appointed the designated signatory on the group accounts of the company, Mr Hughes said.

At least €3.1m of shareholders loans advanced for investment in TAM were lodged directly to Mr Hynes own current account or to someone related to him rather than to the company accounts, Mr Hughes said. This was “a matter of the utmost gravity”.

In 2008, after another director, John Power, and two shareholders/creditors, applied to put the TAM group into examinership, only one of its companies involved in commercial property, survived. Five other companies in the group, including the TAM plc holding company itself, were wound up.

In Mr Hughes’ investigation into the affairs of the company, he said he was “particularly struck” at the losses suffered by investors, many of whom will receive no dividend from the liquidation.

The company had taken their investors’ power of attorney to enter into guarantees for company debts to Bank of Scotland Ireland based on misrepresentations, Mr Hughes said.

He did not think the investors realised the full significance of what they were being asked to sign in those power of attorney documents. They were left still having to guarantee significant debts as a result of “this most unusual practice”.

Mr Hughes said his investigation made clear there was poor accounting and corporate governance and that TAM’s investment policies were irresponsible whereby it entered into capital commitments without adequate funding and in light of the property collapse. The firm was “hopelessly insolvent” from at least December 2006 but despite this Mr Hynes and others continue to seek to expand its portfolio, Mr Hughes said.

The hearing continues tomorrow.