Simon Kelly, developer has offered to pay back €100 a month to lender ACC Bank.

By Esther Hayden and Dearbhail McDonald

Thursday February 03 2011

THE son of property tycoon Paddy Kelly has fallen behind on his mortgage payments and cannot repay a €17m debt he owes.

Simon Kelly, developer, columnist and author of the memoir ‘Breakfast with Anglo’, has offered to pay back €100 a month to lender ACC Bank.

But the developer, whose soured property loans of some €200m have been taken over by NAMA, says that it is “very difficult” on his annual income of €80,000 a year to make a meaningful difference to the €17m he owes to ACC.

Mr Kelly claims he has an annual income of €80,000 but is receiving no income from NAMA despite submitting a business plan to the bad bank.

Mr Kelly told Wicklow District Court last week some of his income came from Red Quartz, the family’s property investment vehicle; while some came from a management company he was involved in.

ACC Bank had sought an instalment order against Simon Kelly, of the Old Rectory, Dunganstown, Co Wicklow. Mr Kelly owes them €17,163,913.44 following two High Court judgments — one on May 28, 2009, and another on April 27, 2010.

The court heard “no payments had been received”.

Mr Kelly, who lives with his wife and five children in an old rectory set in five acres, told Wicklow District Court he was getting no income from NAMA.

Because of the commercial sensitivities of his dealings with NAMA, Mr Kelly applied to Judge Murrough Connellan to have the ACC application heard in private, but the judge refused.

NAMA refused to discuss Mr Kelly’s dealings with it, but a spokesperson said it “does not and will not” provide incomes to debtors.

Under cross-examination by ACC barrister Rossa Fanning, Mr Kelly said he had a credit card with Bank of Ireland and had an AIB bank account used for rent collection for five properties he had in Liverpool.

Mr Kelly said the business plan he submitted to NAMA “included an income for me”, but he said he was “in limbo” and had no idea if it would be approved.

He said he had outgoings of €120,000 per year. The court heard Mr Kelly has five children and he pays school fees of €27,000 per year.

Mr Fanning queried why Mr Kelly was not making any “provisions for payments of debts” and Mr Kelly said the €17m loan was “not my only debt”.

He said he was in arrears with his home loan.

Following a break to examine Mr Kelly’s statement of means, Judge Connellan made no order due to “lack of funds”.

- Esther Hayden and Dearbhail McDonald

Irish Independent

source; www.Inedpendent.ie