A former accountant for Mr Denis O’Brien told the Moriarty tribunal today he was evasive about Mr Michael Lowry’s involvement in a property deal in a meeting with a senior official from Investec Bank.
Mr Aidan Phelan said he did not deliberately lie to the bank official from Investec, formerly GE Capital Woodchester, but he had been evasive because of the "mixed signals" he said he received at the meeting.
He said, given the atmosphere at the meeting in February 2001, he felt it was not appropriate to mention Mr Lowry’s connection with the loan to the official.
Mr Phelan was involved in a transaction with Mr Lowry in March 1999 involving a property in Mansfield, England.
Investec supplied the loan for £420,000 sterling for the property deal. The deal was signed by Mr Phelan and Mr Lowry. Mr Phelan ended up repaying the loan.
Mr Phelan told the tribunal that he had believed the bank was aware of Mr Lowry’s connection to the loan but that it was obvious at the meeting that this was not the case.
Under cross-examination this afternoon, Mr Phelan insisted he had told Mr Michael Tunney, former senior executive with Woodchester who handled the loan, of Mr Lowry’s involvement in the deal in December 1999. This is in direct conflict with Mr Tunney’s evidence to the tribunal.
Referring to a letter sent in March 2001 to Investec from Mr Vaughan, a UK solicitor who worked for Mr Phelan, Mr Coughlan SC for the tribunal asked if there had been a deliberate attempt to mislead the bank and remove references to Mr Lowry.
Mr Phelan said no. He said as far as he and Mr Vaughan were concerned, Mr Lowry was no longer involved in the matter since he (Mr Phelan) took over the loan in January or February 2000. He said there were gaps in the letter, but that it was not completely misleading.
Mr Phelan then accounted for a letter to Investec of March 5th, 2000, which he said was dictated to him by the Investec official, which purports that he (Mr Phelan) was behind the loan from the outset and made no reference to Mr Lowry. He said he thought Investec wanted to keep Mr Lowry’s name out of it.
This afternoon, Mr Phelan also rejected Mr Coughlan’s suggestion that he had become involved in property dealings with Mr Lowry because of a failed attempt to pass money to the former Minister.
Mr Coughlan suggested that money intended for Mr Lowry may have "got stuck" with an intermediary, Mr David Austin, and that Mr Lowry had subsequently sought financial assistance from Mr Phelan. He suggested this money was related to Mr Denis O’Brien’s purchase of a house in Spain in 1996 which he said was actually a failed attempt to give money to Mr Lowry.
Mr Phelan said it did not look like that to him.