Dublin chef Mr Conrad Gallagher agreed at the High Court yesterday to allow a judgment for £64,000 to be registered against his £700,000 Co Dublin home in favour of the landlord of one of his former restaurants.
Mr Gallagher's home at Killiney Hill Road is for sale. The property, which he bought about a year ago for £320,000, has undergone substantial renovation with "probably £500,000" invested in it, Mr Gallagher told Mr Justice Smyth.
However, there was a mortgage of £306,000 which was several months in arrears, as well as a charge of £150,000 in favour of his former partner, Ms Karla Elliott, he added.
In September, Dalkey Furniture had a judgment of £32,427 registered against Mr Gallagher. On October 23rd, Mr Gerard McGurn obtained a £64,000 judgment plus costs against him. Mr McGurn was the former landlord of Mr Gallagher's restaurant, Lloyd Brasserie, in Upper Merrion Street, Dublin, and had alleged he was owed £57,000.
Yesterday, Mr Justin McQuade, for Mr Gallagher, asked the High Court to set aside an order appointing a solicitor, Mr Fergus Gallagher, of Fitzpatrick Gallagher and McEvoy, as receiver over monies which may be owed to the chef.
Mr Gallagher told the court he was now earning £317 a week, after tax, running his Peacock Alley restaurant in the Fitzwilliam Hotel, Dublin.
Mr Gallagher, under cross-examination by Mr Conor Bowman, for Mr McGurn, said he had written a cookery book, One Pot Wonder, for Random House. Instead of receiving royalties, he had received 3,000 copies of the book, which sold at £16.99 each.
A thousand copies still remained unsold. The proceeds from the sale of the book went straight into the Peacock Alley takings.
He agreed with Mr Bowman that several companies of which he had been a director had "gone to the wall" recently but disputed an assertion by counsel that they had left as much as £1 million owing to the Revenue Commissioners.
Mr Justice Smyth said he would give his decision today.