Local businessman has fled the country, High Court is told

A Tullamore businessman whom the High Court ordered on Monday to be jailed for failing to comply with an order to hand over machinery has fled the country, the same court was told on Wednesday. Earlier this week, Ms Justice Mary Laffoy ruled that Mr Donal Rigney be sent to and remain in prison until he purged his contempt and complied with the order to return machinery to Lombard Ireland Ltd to whom Mr Rigney made personal guarantees on an unpaid loan of €1.9 million. The High Court heard that Rigney had failed to comply with a court order last May directing him to hand over 14 construction machines. But the court was told on Wednesday that the warrant had not been executed. Rigney admitted lying about his assets in court on a previous occasion but now says that only four of the machines are in his control as the other ten were unlawfully taken and are now the subject of criminal proceedings. Solicitors for Lombard told the court that it suspects the machines are in fact being hired out to facilitate a lucrative building contract in Oman. The judge rejected Mr Rigney's claims that the machinery was no longer in his control and ordering his committal to Mountjoy Prison for contempt of court. Ms Justice Mary Laffoy said it was impossible to believe anything Mr Rigney said. However, on Wednesday the High Court heard that Lombard Ireland Ltd believed had left Ireland despite the high court order that he be jailed. High Court judge Ms Justice Maureen Clark was told that gardai were unable to execute a warrant committing Mr Rigney to Mountjoy Prison. However, Lombard Ireland told the judge that from their investigations Mr Rigney remained a free man, as gardai were unable to enforce the warrant, and that he had left the jurisdiction. The court heard from a legal representative of Mr Rigney's, who said that they had been in contact with their client and that he had waited to be brought to Mountjoy by the gardai. The failure to imprison Mr Rigney emerged yesterday as another firm, National Irish Asset Finance (NIAF), applied to the court for orders seeking the return of its machinery. At the High Court, yesterday National Irish Asset Finance, which also entered into a number of agreements with Rigney for the lease and hire-purchase of construction machinery, applied to the court for orders seeking the return of its machinery. Padraic Lyons, counsel for NIAF - which terminated the agreements last March - said the company was seeking the return of machinery. There could be "no dispute" that the machinery was the property of NIAF, said Mr Lyons. NIAF, which said it was owed an estimated €500,000 by Mr Rigney, said it had been informed, for the first time, of the whereabouts of some of the machinery. The court heard that six items of machinery had been scrapped, 14 were in Tullamore, up to 10 were in Dubai and two had been sold. Mr Lyons said that on two previous occasions an agent of NIAF had been unable to collect any of its machinery in Tullamore. The judge, who adjourned the matter to Friday's sitting of the High Court, said that she wanted to know why the warrant committing Rigney to prison had not been executed. She said that on Friday she required an affidavit from the gardai as to why the order had not been executed, and also would require an affidavit from Mr Rigney in defence of the claim against him by NIAF. The High Court also granted De Lage Langan Ireland, trading as ACC finance, permission to bring court proceedings arising out of what it claimed was Rigney's failure to return leased machinery. The court heard that a motion to have Rigney committed to prison was originally adjourned to October after Rigney had agreed to pay the company €30,000. However, the court heard that that payment was not made. That matter was made returnable before the High Court on Wednesday, September 8.