Former Miss Ireland and TV presenter Pamela Flood and her restaurateur husband Ronan Ryan face losing their Dublin home after a bank moved to re-possess the property.
Judge Jacqueline Linnane said in the Circuit Civil Court on Wednesday that Mr Ryan (48) had not paid anything off his €1.1 million mortgage for more than eight years. "The last payment to this account was on 4th August 2010," she said.
Ms Flood, the 47-year-old former model, was not named on Mr Ryan's 2006 mortgage with Bank of Scotland and is not a defendant in the case but following her marriage to Mr Ryan in 2014, she was joined as a notice party to the repossession proceedings relating to a family home.
The bid to take back the couple's home at Mount Prospect Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3, is now being made by Tanager, an American-owned "vulture fund" that snapped up more than 2,000 distressed Irish home loans almost 10 years ago at discount rates from Bank of Scotland.
Tanager, which was represented in court by barristers Rudie Newman and Kevin Pidgeon, has a registered office at Clanwilliam Square, Grand Canal Quay, Dublin. More than 90 per cent of the loans it bought from Bank of Scotland were two years or more in arrears.
Eoin O’Shea, who appeared with solicitor David M Turner, for Mr Ryan and Ms Flood, told Judge Linnane he had prepared written legal submissions on their behalf which could, before the next hearing, be studied by the court in conjunction with submissions on behalf of the bank.
The court heard that Bank of Scotland Ireland Ltd had granted Mr Ryan a 34-year mortgage of €1,105,000 to be paid back in monthly instalments of €4,434. The loan had fallen into arrears now amounting to €281,111 and the total debt outstanding to Tanager was stated to be €1,207,904.
Judge Linnane said that apart from no money having been paid against the mortgage since August 2010 it was not disputed that the mortgage had been taken out against the property in Mount Prospect Avenue.
Mr Ryan used to own three restaurants which were hit by the financial recession of 2008.
Ms Flood, a former host of Off the Rails television series and several RTÉ shows, was to have presented a TV3 documentary series about older mothers but this was shelved after Virgin Media took over the station.
The mother of four won the Miss Ireland pageant 26 years ago and married Mr Ryan on May 15th, 2014.
The possession proceedings was adjourned to allow consideration of legal submissions on behalf of both parties.