Courts made 120 judgments on debts due worth €189m in a week

By Charlie Weston Personal Finance Editor

Tuesday March 27 2012
 



CONSUMERS and business people had 120 judgments registered against them in court last week as creditors fought to get debts paid.

The total value of bad debt was a massive €189m, but this was largely accounted for by a single judgment for €185m registered by 'bad bank', the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), against property developer Sean Dunne.

A total of 92 individuals were chased for unpaid debts of €188m, while 28 limited companies were pursued for debts totalling €365,000.

One of the larger judgments was registered by Cork City Council for €924,000 against Karl McCaughley of Ballinspittle, Kinsale, Co Cork, according to 'Stubbs Gazette'.

Credit unions registered 10 judgments totalling €216,000 worth of bad debt.

Galway-based St Jarlaths Credit Union was awarded the highest value judgment of €116,750 against builder Sean Connolly of Ballymote, Tuam, Co Galway. It is unknown if any of these debts have been repaid since the judgments were registered.

Defaulting borrowers are more likely to make good on court orders to repay credit union loans than to pay back cash to their banks, according to research by 'Stubbs Gazette'.

More than 40pc of debt judgments registered by credit unions in 2011 resulted in at least partial payments by year-end.

Several lenders get no repayment at all despite going to court to obtain judgment and then publishing the debt in 'Stubbs Gazette'.

Recouping

This week's judgments show that private school Dundalk Grammar has turned to the courts for assistance in recouping unpaid fees of more than €7,500.

The tax authorities continue to be the most active at seeking to register judgments.

The Collector General had 51 judgments registered, totalling €1.7m, against individuals and companies for failing to pay their taxes.

It is only possible to get information on registered judgments. This is where a court decides that money is owed to a creditor, and the creditor then registers the judgment, which allows its details to be published in the likes of 'Stubbs Gazette'

Since October 2010, the Court Services has refused permission to correspondents to collect unregistered judgments.

The grounds given were that it was not specifically written into statute that information on unregistered judgments could be collected, even though 'Stubbs' publisher BusinessPro had been collecting these since 2000. Unregistered judgments account for over 80pc of total judgments.

Now legal action is to be taken by a company called Registry Trust/Irish Judgments, which engages correspondents to collect judgment information from courts, over the move to curtail access to judgment information in the circuit and district courts.

Chairman of the company Malcolm Hurlston said: "Prompted by our customers and by lenders, we started court action to put matters right but there have been substantial delays which endanger economic recovery."

- Charlie Weston Personal Finance Editor

Irish Independent