Danske Bank, High Court, Summary Judgement, Recievers

Danske Bank

Danske Bank is now the most aggressive financial institution in the State when it comes to pursuing its debtors through the courts for summary judgment, an analysis of official court records has shown.

Danske is more than seven times as likely as either of the pillar banks, AIB and Bank of Ireland, to resort to court action against its customers, when the number of cases is measured against the size of the banks’ loan books.

A total of 1,354 cases for summary judgment – where the plaintiff applies for a fast-track ruling from a judge without a trial or witnesses – were recorded on the High Court database in 2014 to the end of last week. Danske, which is winding down its Irish loan book, accounts for almost one in five such applications.

Banks criticised Edmund Honohan, the Master of the High Court and a brother of Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan, has repeatedly criticised banks for their increasing use of summary judgment applications in debt cases.

Mr Honohan has questioned whether the fast-track procedure gives bank borrowers a fair chance to mount a defence.

Danske has issued summary proceedings against 263 of its borrowers so far this year.

This compares to 237 for the AIB group, including its EBS subsidiary, and 245 for Bank of Ireland, including a handful by its building society ICS.

However, Danske’s gross loan book – which is in the region of €7 billion, including the €3.4 billion of loans held in its “non-core” bad bank – is dwarfed by the gross loan books of the two pillar banks.

Bank of Ireland’s gross Irish loans are about €53 billion, while AIB’s domestic book is €48 billion.

Bank of Scotland, which is also winding down its Irish operations, has filed 44 summary judgment cases this year, which suggests it may be cutting deals with many of its indebted borrowers instead of pursuing them through the courts.

Ulster Bank has filed 90 cases so far in 2014, while Rabobank-owned ACC has filed 44 summary judgment proceedings against its borrowers.

The subprime lender Start Mortgages, KBC bank, IBRC and Investec have all resorted to summary judgment in fewer than 20 cases each. Permanent TSB has filed three such cases.

Of AIB group’s 237 applications, just 78 were made in the name of its mortgage bank, suggesting it is primarily using the summary judgment tactic against other borrowers, such as small business owners, and for individual unsecured loans.

About 94 of Bank of Ireland’s 245 applications were from its mortgage bank, suggesting its approach regarding when to seek a summary judgment is similar to AIB’s.

Human rights Writing in The Irish Times earlier this year, Edmund Honohan suggested that the increased use in recent years of summary applications is not “in the interests of justice”, adding that their use had been rare when he practised as a barrister.

He has described summary procedures as “plaintiff favoured” and perfunctory”, and suggested earlier this month that some Irish summary judgments could run foul of European human rights law.

“Not many [people] will know that a High Court case will often consist only of the judge reading the sworn written evidence of both sides and [summarily] judging the case on that basis alone,” said Mr Honohan.

“The number of cases being dealt with summarily is on the rise. Should we be concerned? . . I think so.”

Danske said its strategy was to work with distressed borrowers to “achieve the best outcome for both” parties.

“Legal action is only taken by the bank as a last resort in the case of a non-performing loan where the customer is not co-operating with bank,” it said.

AIB and Bank of Ireland were unavailable for comment.

Dublin Shooting, Drimnagh shooting, Alan Ryan, Real IRA

 Man shot dead Drimnagh

Gardai have launched a murder investigation after a known gangland figure was shot dead in Dublin this afternoon.

The victim was wounded outside a house on Cooley Rd, Drimnagh, and pronounced dead.

The 38-year-old former youth sports star was a suspected murderer who was charged with a fatal shooting but was recently cleared.

He walked free from court after spending several years in prison on remand when bail was denied because he was a flight risk and over fears he would intimidate witnesses.

A convicted robber, he had been warned his life was in danger and The Irish Oberver understands had taken precaution in an effort to evade any attempts on his life.

Today’s fatal attack occurred at around 3pm. The Irish Observer will not name the dead man until relatives have been informed.

Regarded as a senior drug dealer, he had extensive contacts throughout the underworld in Dublin and was closely associated with the gang suspected of being behind the murder almost two years ago of Real IRA key figure in Dublin Alan Ryan.

A Garda spokesman said gardaí at Sundrive Road were investigating.

The scene is preserved pending a technical and forensic examination. The local Coroner and the office of the State pathologist have also been notified.

Dublin Shooting, Drimnagh shooting, Alan Ryan, Real IRA

Gerry Adams Charged, Gerry Adams TD Sinn Fein, The IRA, Sinn Fein, Politics, PSNI

Gerry Adams TD Charged

Gerry Adams TD and President of Sinn Fein may be charged this evening 4^th May 2014 with Directing Terrorism in between January 1^st 1972 and December 31^st 1972 and being a member of an illegal organisation namely the Provisional IRA or a file may be sent to the Public Prosecution Service.

The charges will be made following 4 days questioning of the Sinn Fein leader in relation to The IRA kidnapping, torture, murder and secret burial of innocent Catholic Mother of 10 children Jean McConville in Belfast when Gerry Adams was IRA Commander in Belfast.

Gerry Adams Sinn Fein Questioning

Gerry Adams will undergo a fourth day of questioning by detectives over the 1972 murder of Belfast mother-of-10 Jean McConville.

Extra time granted to police to question the Sinn Féin president will expire later today.

Amid a growing row over the arrest, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister said he believes it is part of an attempt by some police officers to settle old scores.

Martin McGuinness blamed an “embittered rump” left over from before the reform of policing whom he claimed wanted to destroy the peace process.

Addressing a rally in the staunchly republican Falls Road, he said: “These people want to settle old scores whatever the political cost.”

On Friday a judge allowed the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) a further 48 hours to hold Mr Adams at Antrim police station. The republican party has warned it will review its support for the police if the veteran leader is charged.

The 65-year-old detainee vehemently denies allegations levelled by former republican colleagues that he ordered Mrs McConville’s murder and secret burial more than 40 years ago after she was wrongly accused of passing information to the security forces.

Sinn Féin’s decision to sign up to support the police in 2007 was viewed as a major milestone in the peace process and prompted the return to devolved rule at Stormont, with the republican party and the Democratic Unionists entering government together.

Mr McGuinness said: “We worked very hard to reform policing.

“Sinn Féin’s negotiations strategy succeeded in achieving new policing arrangements but we always knew that there remained with the PSNI an embittered rump of the old RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary).

He added: “The arrest of Gerry Adams is evidence that there is an element within the PSNI who are against the peace process and who hate Gerry Adams and Sinn Féin.

“They are what the reformers within the PSNI have described to us as the dark side.

“They are small in number but very influential. This group is working to a negative and anti-peace process agenda and are actively involved in political policing.”

Stormont First Minister Peter Robinson, Justice Minister David Ford and Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers have defended the police’s handling of the arrest and denied the action was politically motivated and designed to undermine Sinn Féin ahead of the forthcoming European elections.

Mrs McConville was dragged, screaming, away from her children in the Divis flats in west Belfast by a gang of up to 12 men and women after being wrongly accused of informing to the security forces.

She was interrogated, shot in the back of the head and then secretly buried — becoming one of the “Disappeared” victims of the Troubles. Her body was not found until 2003 on a beach in Co Louth, 50 miles from her home.

Mr Adams, a former MP for West Belfast and now an elected representative for Co Louth in the Irish Dail, voluntarily presented himself for interview by prior arrangement with detectives.

Gerry Adams Prosecution

MI6 have moved to protect Gerry Adams TD from prosecution for with-holding information into the activities of two serial child rapists, His Father Gerry Adams Snr and his Brother Liam Adams.

Prosecutors have directed no prosecution of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams over claims he withheld information about his brother's sex abuse from the police.

Gerry Adams has been accused of waiting almost a decade to tell detectives what he knew about his brother Liam.

Liam Adams was convicted this week of abusing his daughter Áine from when was she aged four until she was nine.

The PSNI confirmed a decision was taken in 2010 by the Public Prosecution Service not to launch a case.

Assistant Chief Constable Drew Harris said: "This matter has been examined to see if we should open an investigation into the case and the advice that we received was not to open an investigation.

"We will re-examine the transcripts (of the recent court case) but all the facts in our knowledge in 2010 have not been moved on materially since the recent trial."

Adams, 58, from Bernagh Drive, Belfast, was found guilty of ten offences, including rape and gross indecency, against his daughter Áine.

The abuse was committed over a six-year period between 1977 and 1983.

Liam Adams Guilty child rape

When Gerry Adams TD was first confronted about the fact that he had concealed the rape of his 4 year old niece Aine Adams, Adams said that he had believed Aine when she said she had been raped by her Father, Liam Adams, and Gerry Adams TD went on to say that after he discovered his brother Liam was a serial child rapist he had no further contact with him. However, Gerry Adams TD was and is a liar of unprecedented magnitude, not only had Gerry Adams TD concealed the rape of 4 yearr old Aine, but Gerry Adams TD had also concealed the knowledge that his own Father, Gerry Adams Snr was a serial child rapist who had used the ‘republican’ movement to access and rape children, Gerry Adams Snr was also an active RUC informer and this was known to the PIRA leadership before Gerry Adams Snr died.

Gerry Adams TD attending his brother Liam's wedding 10 years after he accepts that Liam has raped a 4 year old child.

The truth has now been fully exposed in a Belfast Courtroom, where Liam Adams has been found guilty of being a serial child rapist, Liam Adams was a senior member of both the Provisional IRA and Sinn Fein, he was promoted in both organisations even after he was outed as a serial child rapist. Gerry Adams TD helped his serial rapist brother set up home in Dundalk where he had access to countless children and in particular to young children in the families off Sinn Fein members, Sinn Fein members who trusted Liam Adams as Gerry Adams had given him the stamp of approval, knowing well that his brother was a child rapist. Gerry Adams TD was parachuted into Dundalk and claimed time and again to locals that the child rape charges against Liam were part of a Brit conspiracy to undermine Gerry Adams TD. With all his bluster and lies, Gerry Adams has finally been exposed as a man prepared to do anything, including conceal the rape of children, to protect his lucrative political career.

Liams Adams convicted, child abuse

Liam Adams has been convicted of all charges relating to the sexual abuse of his daughter Áine.

Adams was found guilty by an 11 - 1 majority verdict by the jury at Belfast Crown Court this afternoon.

Adams (58), from Bernagh Drive in west Belfast, denied 10 charges of sexual assault against his daughter Áine, now aged 40 – three of rape, three of gross indecency and four of indecent assault.

The assaults took place over a six-year period beginning in 1977 when Áine Adams was aged four.

Gerry Adams TD canvasing with his Brother Liam Adams for Sinn Fein (This is after Gerry Adams TD is aware and accepts that Liam Adams has raped his 4 year old daughter)

Liam Adams has been convicted of raping his then 4 year old daughter Aine, his crimes were concealed by his brother Gerry Adams TD. Gerry Adams TD knowing that his brother Liam had raped a 4 year old child, helped his brother Liam set up home in the Irish Republic, in Dundalk, where Liam Adams had open access to hundreds of children. Sinn Fein leaders including Gerry Adams TD protected the serial child rapist Liam Adams from apprehension or prosecution, and Gerry Adams TD only admitted his role in this crime when it was clear that Sinn Fein and the PIRA could no longer keep her silent.

In the picture below serial child rapist Gerry Adams Snr, Gerry Adams TD who concealed his Father's crimes, Liam Adams convicted for raping his 4 year old daughter, Gerry Adams TD who concealed his crimes, Martin McGuinness who helped Liam Adams establish himself in Dundalk, County Louth, after it was known that Liam Adams had been identified as someone who had raped a 4 year old child. Martin McGuinness wanted to be President of Ireland.

Gerry Adams TD

Gerry Adams Snr was also a serial child rapist, who along with other members of Sinn Fein/Provisional IRA in Belfast picked working class children up from the streets to rape them in derelict houses and sheds in west Belfast. Gerry Adams TD has admitted that he knew his Father was a serial child rapist, however, in order to protect his lucrative political career Gerry Adams TD afforded his Father a full-style PIRA funeral in west Belfast, the final insult to the many dozens of children raped by the evil Adams Family.

However, Gerry Adams TD was not the only senior member of Sinn Fein to offer succour to serial child rapist Liam Adams, want to be President of Ireland and MI6 Agent Martin McGuinness also helped Liam Adams to settle into his new Sinn Fein role in Dundalk, County Louth, as this picture clearly shows, McGuinness and Adams were as thick as thieves and therefore there is no doubt that McGuinness knew that Liam Adams was a serial child rapist.

Liam Adams Prosecuted by David McDowell

The claim came from prosecuting lawyer David McDowell as he closed the case against 58-year-old Liam Adams.

Mr McDowell told the Belfast Crown Court jury of nine men and three women that "the truth is king in this case".

"We suggest members of the jury that when you look at the truth, quite literally, you could not make it up," said the lawyer, adding that such was the evidence of Áine Adams, "no ordinary member of the public who has not been abused could not have come up with it."

Defence QC Eilis McDermott

Adams' defence QC Eilis McDermott counter claimed, however, that both Áine and her mother Sarah were proven liars whose evidence "doesn't hold water".

"The fact that the witnesses are prepared to swear by Almighty God to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and then lie to you [over dealings with the police], must mean in a case like this, that you cannot accept the truthfulness of any part of their evidence because it's all you have got," declared the lawyer.

Liam Adams, from Bearnagh Drive in west Belfast, is charged with ten offences including rape, indecent assault and gross indecency against his daughter more than 30 years ago on dates between March 1977 and March 1983.

He denies all charges.

Aine Adams

His daughter 40-year-old Áine Adams has testified that between the ages of four and nine, her father raped and abused her at various addresses the family lived in - including when her mother was in hospital giving birth to her brother and when she was in bed beside her brother.

The jury have heard that although the allegations were brought to police attention in 1987, six months after a family confrontation in Buncrana, the complaint was withdrawn.

Sarah Campbell

Adams' ex-wife Sarah Campbell said that was because she felt the police were more interested in her husband's activities and associates, recounting how one social worker told her the police had asked for Mrs Campbell to meet them in the city centre.

Those claims have been refuted by social workers.

The allegations were raised again in 2007 and it was then that Liam Adams was arrested and interviewed.

The jury have also heard that when initially asked about being confronted by his wife, daughter and his brother Gerry Adams, Liam Adams denied it happened.

Giving evidence on his own behalf when he repeatedly and consistently denied the allegations, Adams claimed he lied about the alleged meeting because it had been "drummed into us that we don't talk about Gerry Adams".

"It had been drummed into us since I was a young person, since the Troubles started that you don't talk about Gerry Adams - you don't talk about him in the barracks, to the British Army, in the media or even as you get older and socialise, you don't talk about Gerry Adams," claimed Liam Adams.

He labelled the allegations against him as "rubbish, absolute rubbish".

On Monday, Mr McDowell said while doubts would likely be cast on the claims for why the allegations were not pursued in the mid-1980s, he suggested to the jury that they use their "common sense".

He suggested that it would be "perfectly credible" that the police would have been interested in not just the allegations of abuse - but also had an "unhealthy interest...in big Gerry" and added that while there were no records of any social worker passing on a police message, "that's the things about off the record conversations, they're not recorded."

Aine Adams credibility

The truthfulness of Áine's account, said Mr McDowell, lay in the details of her evidence because if it had not happened, "how could she come up with this?"

If Áine had not been subjected to it, suggested the lawyer, "she could not have told you of the turmoil in the mind of the child."

He further declared to the jury that looking at the evidence and in applying common sense and their life experience, they would be "firmly convinced" of Adams' guilt.

During her closing remarks, Ms McDermott conceded that Adams, contrary to his solicitor's advice, had lied to police about the meeting in Buncrana, Co Donegal but that he had given his reasons for that.

"It may seem to you a good reason or a bad reason but it's his reason," said the lawyer, adding that the jury should apply their common sense when looking at that aspect of Adams' evidence.

Liam Adams the evidence

She urged the jury to look at the evidence of the social workers who testified that no such message was ever passed onto Áine and her mother from the police, claiming their account "is just patently not right".

Describing the jury as the "supreme judges of fact," Ms McDermott told them that only two people "in the whole world" really knew what had happened - Adams and his daughter Áine.

"Look at the evidence and ask: 'Is that enough, is that enough to satisfy me beyond reasonable doubt so that I'm firmly convinced of the guilt of a person?'," said the lawyer, adding that Áine and her mother could not be relied on.

Áine's sister Sinead had given evidence, telling the jury that her father allegedly confessed to her that he had abused Áine during a reconciliation meeting in December 2002, a meeting which was followed up by regular visits before things broke down again around ten months later.

On Monday, however, Ms McDermott said that not only had Adams denied any such confession, she put to the jury that if a father had just confessed to you that he abused your sister "you would not be able to wait to get out the door....you would not go anywhere near him".

She also highlighted the fact that although the Crown say he is a "monster" - who first raped his daughter when she was around five - none of his other three daughters or any child he worked with in various youth clubs and projects had ever made a similar complaint.

"We say to you that the only proper verdicts that you can return on these counts are verdicts of not guilty," declared Ms McDermott.

Once trial judge Deputy Recorder Judge Corinne Philpott QC has directed the jury in how to apply the law to each of the charges, the jury will retire to consider their verdicts.

The jury have been told their deliberations will begin on Tuesday.

Gerry Adams Charged, Gerry Adams TD Sinn Fein, The IRA, Sinn Fein, Politics, PSNI