Lawyer 'not told to withhold details'

Mahon tribunal: A London-based lawyer for Mr Liam Lawlor denied yesterday he was instructed by the former Dublin West TD to withhold information from the inquiry.

Mr Anthony Seddon said his client gave him "more of a positive instruction" to disclose certain matters of relevance to the Mahon tribunal.

"You did not say 'don't disclose this or that'," the lawyer said in response to a cross-examination by Mr Lawlor.

The former Fianna Fáil TD, who is representing himself at the tribunal, said he wished to "dispel the myth" that he instructed his solicitor to withhold information.

Mr Lawlor said it was his intention from "day one" that everything would be provided.

However, Mr Des O'Neill SC, counsel for the tribunal, pointed out that the documentation relevant to Mr Lawlor's affairs had been provided in full only a fortnight ago.

The tribunal is due to address the question of Mr Lawlor's co-operation when the politician returns to the witness box today.

Addressing the tribunal during his cross-examination of Mr Seddon, Mr Lawlor said it was "quite incorrect" of Mr O'Neill to depict a £100,000 (€143,670) transfer between two bank accounts in September 2000 as a "sheltering" transaction.

Mr Seddon said it did not seem to him at the time that the payment - yielded by Mr Lawlor in a property deal - was being "hidden". However, he remarked it was not a matter for him to know how Mr Lawlor was handling his tax returns.

Mr Seddon added he was notified only last June that forged notepaper from his firm was used to invoice the £100,000 payment. He said Mr Lawlor apologised to him for this, saying the forgery had been "produced for somebody else at their request".

Mr Seddon noted he had a "different professional relationship" with Mr Lawlor since then. "While the apology was appreciated there are some things you don't easily forgive."

Earlier, Mr Seddon told the tribunal that in official documentation, he had described profits earned by one of Mr Lawlor's companies in a property deal as a "loan". The solicitor said he did this without consulting the former TD, from whom he didn't recall receiving "any specific instructions". Asked whether the payment of 17 million Czech crowns (€490,000) was treated as a loan to ensure there was no tax liability, Mr Seddon replied: "That was not the intention, I am sure."

Rather, he said, there was "uncertainty" about the transaction. He claimed he did not know at the time it was not a loan.

The €490,000 payment was part of a larger sum - estimated in the order of €1.2 million - earned by a company called Zatecka, allegedly owned by Mr Lawlor, in the sale of a property in Prague in February 2000.

The tribunal heard that Mr Lawlor had initially sought to make £2 million (€2.87 million) for "introducing" the Hybernska building, which was valued independently at £4 million, to Mr Sean Mulryan of Ballymore Properties.

Mr Lawlor had initially put the total contract price at £8.1 million, in what Mr Seddon described as a "puffed- up opening shot".

The building, which was owned by a third party, was eventually bought for just over £3.5 million, with Zatecka earning a commission on the sale.

Mr Lawlor yesterday continued to deny ownership of Zatecka, for which he claimed to have acted only as a "consultant".