Mahon tribunal:Allied Irish Bank and Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan believed Tom Gilmartin was "a loose cannon" and a hindrance to the development of Quarryvale, a former Bank of Ireland official told the Mahon tribunal yesterday.
Paul Sheeran said, however, he believed Mr Gilmartin was honourable, truthful and regarded as a very successful, highly-respected businessman in London-Irish business circles.
He said he had known Mr Gilmartin since 1972 and would not regard him as a "Walter Mitty" character. Mr Gilmartin had borrowed £8.5 million from AIB in 1991, after being turned down by Bank of Ireland, the tribunal heard. The money was to buy land at Quarryvale, west Dublin, to develop the Liffey Valley shopping centre.
When the development proceeded at a slower rate than expected, the bank became concerned. This resulted in Mr O'Callaghan and the bank becoming shareholders in the project, with a 40 per cent and 20 per cent stake respectively.
Mr Gilmartin subsequently asked Mr Sheeran to represent him at shareholders' meetings at AIB bank centre in Ballsbridge, in 1994, when he could no longer afford to travel from Luton to the meetings himself.
Mr Sheeran told the tribunal yesterday that he believed Mr Gilmartin was regarded by AIB and Mr O'Callaghan "as a loose cannon", whose judgment was flawed and whose presence would be a hindrance to furthering the development of Quarryvale. He said there was no will by the bank or Mr O'Callaghan to have Mr Gilmartin involved in the Quarryvale development and he was "effectively frozen out" of meetings because he did not have the money to travel to Ireland.
Mr Sheeran also backed allegations made by Mr Gilmartin that Shefran Ltd, a company owned by lobbyist Frank Dunlop, was being used by the bank and Mr O'Callaghan to hide payments to Mr Dunlop.
"Owen O'Callaghan and AIB confirmed to me at a board meeting that they were using Shefran Ltd to shield Mr Gilmartin from the fact that payments were being made to Mr Dunlop," Mr Sheeran said.
Counsel for the tribunal, Pat Quinn SC, read into the record a note of a phone call between Mr Sheeran and an AIB bank official in October 1994, in which Mr Sheeran said Mr Gilmartin was "quite incoherent", thought everyone was against him and was "paranoid in this regard".
Mr Sheeran said he did not recall the phone call and if he said "paranoid", he did not mean it in the normal sense, but meant to say Mr Gilmartin had "an infinite variety of concerns" in relation to the Quarryvale project.
Under cross-examination by Alan Keating, counsel for Mr O'Callaghan, Mr Sheenan said if he used the word "incoherent", he meant Mr Gilmartin was very disturbed regarding his affairs.
Noel Smyth, former solicitor for Mr Gilmartin, said his client was a "very good guy".
He said he could be described as "naive or stupid or maybe a combination of both" in relation to how he handled the Quarryvale development, "but he was an honest man".
He said he believed Mr Gilmartin had been badly dealt with, and had lost 60 per cent of his company because "he didn't know the system or the system betrayed him". Company law would have supported him in taking legal action on foot of what happened to him, Mr Smyth said.
Legal proceedings were initiated, but a settlement was eventually reached with Mr O'Callaghan and AIB, and Mr Gilmartin was paid £7.6 million for his shares in the Quarryvale development.
