The High Court has postponed Patrick J. Daly’s discharge from bankruptcy until 23 November 2025, the tenth anniversary of his adjudication. Ms Justice Costello found that Mr Daly had failed to cooperate with the Official Assignee and had hidden or failed to disclose assets that could benefit creditors.
The Official Assignee sought the extension under section 85A of the Bankruptcy Act 1988, as amended. The court had previously made an order under section 85A(3) on 7 November 2016. In this application, it found that Mr Daly’s initial failure to cooperate was total and deliberate, and that meaningful cooperation remained lacking by the hearing.
Mr Daly was adjudicated bankrupt on 23 November 2015. The judgment says he moved to Kent in May of that year without giving the Official Assignee his address or responding to requests for information. He filed a statement of affairs in March 2017 and personal information in April 2017, after the extension motion had been advertised. The court found he had received the Official Assignee’s emails and rejected his claim that he had not.
The judge also found that Mr Daly had not supplied all records concerning three 2012 transactions: the sale of the family home, Ballinagore House, the restructuring of shares in Star Alliance Limited and Jalpa Properties Limited, and the transfer of shares in a Spanish company holding an apartment. At interview, he declined to explain the transactions. The judgment says documents supporting the Spanish transfer and share transactions remained outstanding.
The judgment recounts that Ballinagore House was sold to Devon Anne McNeil for €100,000, subject to the Dalys’ rights of residence, after a valuation of €550,000. The Official Assignee had already recovered the property for the bankruptcy estates of Mr and Mrs Daly through separate High Court proceedings. The judge said the validity of the share transactions could not be decided in this application; they remained matters for investigation and separate proceedings.
The court considered the non-cooperation to be at the very serious end of the spectrum. It ordered discharge on the tenth anniversary of the adjudication, within the statutory limit it considered applicable. The order extended the bankruptcy; it did not determine the validity of the share transactions.