A businessman has been found liable for a €293,000 debt incurred by his now-liquidated firm arising from a personal guarantee signed by him.

Dennis O'Connell had alleged he signed the guarantee after being assured it would never be called in but Mr Justice Gerard Hogan said there was no documentary evidence to support that claim.

Mr O'Connell, owner of Galway company Dry Lining Ltd, in voluntary liquidation, is liable for the debt due to Tennants Building Products Ltd, of Dublin and Belfast, arising from his guarantee of October 2008, Mr Justice Hogan ruled.

Dry Lining Ltd was one of Tennants’ biggest customers for materials such as suspended ceilings, partitions, fire protection insulation and external cladding, the judge noted in his judgment.

With the downturn in the construction industry in 2008, Dry Lining was experiencing difficulties in securing payments from its own customers and was obliged to write off some of this debt.

This, in turn, affected the company’s ability to pay Tennants, which then made it clear to Mr O’Connell some form of security would be required if existing trading terms were to continue.

Mr O’Connell maintained he signed the guarantee only on foot of an explicit assurance it was simply for presentational purposes so that Tennants’ head office in London would be placated. Tennants denied those claims.