Couple want multi-million debt written off in exchange for €25,000 lump sum

The High Court was due to consider approving personal insolvency arrangements for Kevin Brophy (71) and Jacinta Rochford (66) who owe creditors €13.7m and €10.9m respectively. Stock image

Shane Phelan Twitter Email

June 21 2022 02:30 AM

A mortgage firm has objected to personal insolvency arrangements (PIAs) which would wipe out a husband and wife’s multi-million euro debt pile and safeguard their Ballsbridge home.

Property developers Kevin Brophy (71) and Jacinta Rochford (66) owe creditors €13.7m and €10.9m respectively and are seeking to have most of their debts written off in return for lump sum payments of just €25,000 to creditors.

The High Court was due to consider approving their personal insolvency arrangements yesterday, but the applications were adjourned by Mr Justice Alexander Owens when a lawyer for Pepper Finance Corporation said it had an objection.

The couple, whose company Gladsted Properties Ltd is behind the Coolbawn Quay boutique resort in Co Tipperary, got into financial difficulty after investing in Quinlan Private, the investment vehicle once run by financier Derek Quinlan. According to their PIAs, the investment failed to achieve projected returns.

This coincided with the property and banking crash between 2008 and 2012 which required the couple to sell assets developed in Co Tipperary at a significant loss.

According to their PIAs, the couple cooperated with creditors to deleverage their property portfolio. However, they were left with significant debts. Some €10m in debt is common to both husband and wife, while Mr Brophy has additional unpaid borrowings of close to €3m.

The couple’s creditors include their mortgage lender Pepper, Cabot Financial, EBS, Cerberus, and Bank of Ireland.

Under PIAs devised by personal insolvency practitioner (PIP) Mitchell O’Brien, a €1.7m mortgage debt on their home in Pembroke Gardens, Ballsbridge, Dublin would be written down to the property’s market value of €900,000.

After a four-month moratorium on the mortgage to allow them fund the costs of the PIA process, the couple would start making fixed interest and part capital mortgage payments of €2,400 a month.

Barrister Keith Farry, for the PIP, said the term of their mortgage would be extended to normal life expectancy and longer if that was exceeded. Any shortfall would be discharged from the estate of the last surviving borrower.

“It is a lifetime tenure, a lifetime mortgage to keep them in their principal private residence,” he said.

As part of the PIAs, the couple would each make a lump sum payment of €12,500 to creditors, sourced from friends and family.

Mr Farry said under the PIAs the couple’s principal creditor Pepper would receive more than if the couple was bankrupted and would get a better return in the long run.

Niall Ó hUiginn, counsel for Pepper, told the court his client had filed an objection and intended to oppose the application. The matter will return to the court next month.

Couple want multi-million debt written off in exchange for €25,000 lump sum

Daily Digest Newsletter

Most Watched

Bill Murray in Limerick pub sing song as punters join in

Nick Kyrgios demanded Stefanos Tsitsipas was defaulted in their third-round match at Wimbledon

80 firefighters tackling blaze at 17-storey block of flats in London

Dublin Airport: What flights are cancelled?

Man faints while reuniting with his mother for the first time in one-and-a-half years in West Cork

Latest Courts

Most Read

Latest