{"id":455647,"date":"2026-05-18T23:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/455647\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T23:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:11:09","slug":"patrick-mckillen-jr-says-e3m-loan-was-illegal-so-doesnt-have-to-be-repaid-court-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/455647\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick McKillen Jr says \u20ac3m loan was illegal so doesn\u2019t have to be repaid, court told"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">But the lender, Herbert Street Property Finance Unlimited Company, says Mr McKillen has advanced that claim in bad faith as it was a business loan for an apartment development by a McKillen firm called The Pinnacle in Mount Merrion, Dublin, and not towards his personal purposes which would require authorisation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Mr McKillen claims, among other things, that Herbert Street Finance entered into the December 2022 loan agreement when it was not a retail credit firm authorised under the Central Bank Act 1997.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The proceedings were admitted to the fast-track Commercial Court on Monday on the application of Bernard Dunleavy SC, for Mr McKillen, and on consent from Martin Hayden SC, for the defendant. Mr Justice Mark Sanfey approved directions for the hearing of the case and adjourned it to October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The court heard that Herbert Street Finance had already brought bankruptcy proceedings against Mr McKillen in relation to the loan and was seeking judgment against him for \u20ac2.14m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_medium indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0\" style=\"color:var(--color-black-base)\">It is claimed that a WhatsApp message referred to \u2018your loan from me\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">In his statement of claim, Mr McKillen said not only was the defendant not authorised to make such a loan, but it had applied a fixed interest sum of \u20ac1m on the \u20ac3m loan, or 33.3pc, which was not a genuine pre-estimate of any commercial loss and constituted an unenforceable penalty clause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">He claims that \u20ac2.3m of the loan had been paid back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It is claimed that a WhatsApp message from David Agar, the principal shareholder in Herbert Street Finance, to Mr McKillen last April 11 referred to \u201cyour loan from me\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">This was the defendant\u2019s representative understanding that the loan was advanced to Mr McKillen personally and was not part of a business-to-business commercial transaction, it is claimed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Mr McKillen claims his guarantee on the loan was void and\/or unenforceable by reason of illegality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">It is also claimed the defendant materially and irremediably prejudiced Mr McKillen\u2019s right of subrogation as guarantor by its conduct including by not pursuing his company, Cool Dust, to which the loan monies were first advanced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Herbert Street Finance\u2019s Mr Agar, in an affidavit, said he refuted Mr McKillen\u2019s claims in their entirety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But the lender, Herbert Street Property Finance Unlimited Company, says Mr McKillen has advanced that claim in bad&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,898],"class_list":["post-455647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news-ticker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}