An associate of Denis O'Brien told the tribunal he thought it was "foolish" when he heard that an accountant working for Michael Lowry had become involved in a dispute concerning a property deal owned by Mr O'Brien.
Dublin accountant Aidan Phelan was asked about the involvement of Mr Lowry's accountant, Denis O'Connor, in an attempt to settle a dispute concerning a £4.3 million property transaction in Doncaster with which Mr Lowry has said he has no connection.
In 2002, Mr O'Connor became involved in trying to settle disputes with Northern Ireland businessman Kevin Phelan, who had an interest in the Doncaster deal, and the vendors of the Doncaster property, Ken Richardson and Mark Weaver.
The involvement occurred against the backdrop of the tribunal's public inquiries into other property deals in England that involved Mr Lowry and Aidan Phelan, and with which Mr O'Brien has said he had no connection.
Mr O'Connor was at the time involved in trying to deal with aspects of these deals also, on behalf of Mr Lowry.
John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, asked Aidan Phelan if he had not thought that Mr O'Connor's involvement in the Doncaster issue could create "potential difficulties" given that he was Mr Lowry's accountant.
"I didn't consider it," Mr Phelan said. "I'm not casing aspersions on Mr O'Connor. I wasn't surprised." He believed Mr O'Connor was "trying to get involved . . . he was courting the O'Brien camp, maybe to get some work. That's just an opinion."
The tribunal also heard that a close associate of Mr O'Brien was warned that paying a potential witness in a dispute concerning the Doncaster Rovers transaction could be a criminal offence. The comment was made to Aidan Phelan by a London solicitor, Ruth Collard, who was acting for the O'Brien family in a dispute with the vendors of the Doncaster club.
The tribunal was shown a note taken by Ms Collard of a telephone conversation with Mr Phelan in June 2002. It read: "RC asked about the payment to Kevin Phelan. AP said that KP had persistently been asking for a fee and had, as RC knew, been making trouble in the litigation."
Ms Collard said "what concerned her was whether any settlement with KP had anything to do with him being a witness, either for our side or for theirs. RC said such an arrangement would be a criminal offence. AP said there was no question of this. They were simply paying him a fee to go away."
At the time, Denis O'Brien snr was overseeing the two disputes at the request of his son. Ms Collard said Mr O'Brien snr had mentioned something to her about Kevin Phelan being a witness that had concerned her, and she repeated that paying him in connection to this would be a criminal offence. Mr Phelan said he would make this point to Mr O'Brien snr "in no uncertain terms".
Mr Phelan told Mr Coughlan he was sure he had passed on Ms Collard's concern to Mr O'Brien snr.
