A GALWAY businessman has been warned he will go to jail again if he does not tell the truth in a case where ACC Asset Finance is seeking more than €3 million.
James Clancy, Eagle Rock, Furbo, Co Galway, was told by Mr Justice Brian McGovern in the High Court that the next time he would not go to jail for a limited period.
Mr Clancy was sent to Mountjoy Prison in Dublin for 14 days in April for contempt.
Yesterday solicitor Maurice Lyons, for ACC Asset Finance, said notice of change of solicitor for Mr Clancy had been filed on Monday, and a new affidavit from Mr Lyons had been produced by his new solicitors at 3.35pm on Tuesday.
Mr Lyons said attachments with the affidavit showed Mr Clancy had a company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and he signed an agreement with his partners in 2009 to liquidate that company. Yet in the witness box last year, Mr Clancy had said he had no company in the UAE. “Clearly he lied on oath to your lordship and his own affidavit proves it.”
A judgment for €3.29 million was made against Mr Clancy in April 2009. In May 2009 Mr Justice Kelly in the High Court made an order against Mr Clancy in relation to the furnishing of documents.
Mr Lyons said it was “incredible” that Mr Clancy was now saying he had forgotten to say he had signed a settlement agreement that he had signed just months before he took the stand last July.
At that time Mr Justice McGovern had expressed astonishment when Mr Clancy said he had no documents.
The case involved €3.99 million in financing for a machine used for the production of prefabricated housing. In evidence last July, Mr Clancy said he had also borrowed money from Anglo Irish Bank to buy a second machine for €3.6 million, which he said was now in the UAE.
He said he had no income since 2007 yet it emerged he had been in the UAE “25 to 30 times” in the past three years.
His flights had been paid for by others, he said. Asked what he had been living on, he told Mr Justice McGovern: “I’m living on fumes.”
Mr Justice McGovern recalled this earlier evidence yesterday. “He told me he was living on fumes. I think the only fumes he was living on were aviation fumes.”
Adjourning the case to June 22nd, Mr Justice McGovern said Mr Clancy would have to file new papers by June 11th. In the meantime, he would read the papers in the case and consider forwarding matters to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
He said his views on this might be tempered by Mr Clancy’s actions in the period to the next hearing.
Mr Clancy is a director of Clantek Future Building Systems, formerly Emmedue, of Portarlington, Co Laois. The company used the machine purchased with ACC Asset Finance to build a development at Riverside, Portarlington.
The Clantek plant in Portarlington is now closed.