Quinn Hard-Drive Smashed, Court Told

The Supreme Court has been told that a computer hard drive which contained crucial information pertaining to the recent charges against the Quinn Group was deliberately smashed.

The hard drive was part of the operations of a Quinn Group Russian company.

Lawyers for the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, formerly bailed-out bank Anglo Irish, told the court files on the hard drive showed employment contracts which had been created to enable termination payments to members of the Quinn family.

Senior Counsel Paul Gallagher pointed out that the very existence of such contracts had previously been denied by the Quinns.

He told the court an administrator appointed by the bank uncovered the hard drive.

It provided for a payment of €7.4m in the case that an employee’s employment was terminated for any reason.

Mr Gallagher also said Seán Quinn had been steering a company which he said he had no control over and from which he could not retrieve any money or information.

But emails retrieved from the computer provide proof Seán Quinn Jnr ordered that bank transfers had to be authorised only by him.

Mr Gallagher said it was "good fortune " that he had appointed a receiver over the company in August and that it was able to uncover the information.

Otherwise, according to Mr Gallagher, the Supreme Court would have had to deal with Seán Quinn Jnr’s appeal on the basis of false information.

This marks the third day of Seán Quinn Jnr’s appeal at the Supreme Court against a three-month jail term imposed for contempt of court.

(IT/GK)