People in financial distress making "a bad situation worse" by consulting "hob lawyers": Judge

A High Court judge has dismissed an appeal by a Cavan couple against a bank repossession order, while strongly criticising unqualified advisers giving flawed legal guidance to homeowners in financial difficulty. Mr Justice Seamus Noonan rejected all grounds of the application by Mark Flynn and Mairead Flynn from Derry Shercock, who sought to set aside a Cavan Circuit Court order granting KBC Bank possession of their home. The judge expressed serious concern about "shadowy advisers" and "hob lawyers" who lack legal qualifications yet charge vulnerable people for defective counsel about their rights. He noted the applicants had claimed entitlement to transfer their mortgage to an entity called the People's Mortgage Protection Vehicle under legislation, which the judge described as "utterly misguided and spurious". The judge stated that people facing financial distress compound their problems by consulting unregulated advisers offering false hope, and recommended engagement with qualified representatives or organisations such as MABS and the Insolvency Service of Ireland instead.