The High Court has ordered Jarleth Kelly to pay the estate of the late Des Finan the euro equivalent of £28,274.01, together with interest dating from September 2000, after rejecting his claim that the money had been invested in a limited company rather than loaned to him personally.
Ms Justice Irvine found that Mr Finan had advanced £68,000 to Mr Kelly in 2000 in connection with imports of garden machinery. The arrangement included payments to Mr Finan linked to profits from several containers of goods.
The proceedings were started in October 2000. After Mr Finan died in April 2002, his widow Breeda Finan continued the case.
Mr Kelly maintained that the money had been provided to Southdell Limited, a company with which he was associated, under what he described as a joint venture. He also argued that sums allegedly owed by Mr Finan for goods and expenses should be deducted.
The court rejected that account. It relied in part on a September 2000 demand letter bearing a handwritten acknowledgement signed by Mr Kelly stating that he owed the amount demanded. Shortly afterwards, £50,000 was paid to Mr Finan's solicitors.
Ms Justice Irvine found Mr Kelly to be an unreliable witness. She noted that his solicitors initially responded to the claim without asserting that Southdell was the true debtor, and that references to company liability developed later in the correspondence.
The judge concluded that Mr Kelly had adopted changing strategies to avoid liability and expressly found that he had sought to defraud his deceased personal friend in the manner in which he defended the proceedings.
The court nevertheless allowed a deduction of £3,360 because Mr Finan had acknowledged that amount was due for equipment supplied to him.
Judgment was therefore entered for the euro equivalent of £28,274.01, with interest from 19 September 2000.