{"id":530732,"date":"2026-07-03T07:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530732\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T07:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:48:13","slug":"company-linked-to-michael-lynn-inquiry-planned-to-house-asylum-seekers-in-e2-8m-property-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530732\/","title":{"rendered":"Company linked to Michael Lynn inquiry planned to house asylum seekers in \u20ac2.8m property \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A company central to an investigation into suspected money laundering by jailed solicitor Michael Lynn<\/a> sought to buy a former nursing home with a view to housing asylum seekers, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

The court documents come from a case taken by Ribblesway Limited, the owner of a four-bedroomed detached house in Sallymount, near Brittas Bay, Co Wicklow<\/a>, where Lynn\u2019s wife, Brid Murphy (52), has been living in recent years with the couple\u2019s children.<\/p>\n

The company and the house, which is Ribblesway\u2019s registered address, are part of a money-laundering investigation by An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na<\/a>. The investigation centres on a suspicion that not all the money stolen by Lynn has been accounted for.<\/p>\n

It is understood Lynn has been seen at the property in recent times, apparently on day release from Shelton Abbey open prison, Co Wicklow.<\/p>\n

The company had received a report from a consultant saying the nursing home, which had just closed, could generate annual income of between \u20ac4 million and \u20ac4.5 million from the State, based on an occupancy of 90 people. This was according to the court papers.<\/p>\n

The consultant\u2019s report pointed out there is a two-year \u201ccooling-off period\u201d before a former nursing home could be used to house asylum seekers.<\/p>\n

In December 2023, Lynn (57) was jailed for 5\u00bd years for the theft of \u20ac18 million from six financial institutions.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Lynn and his wife Brid Murphy in late 2023. Photograph: Collins Courts <\/p>\n

The crimes were committed during the boom years when Lynn became involved in a complex maze of property deals in Ireland and abroad. <\/p>\n

He was accused of stealing a total of \u20ac27 million but was not found guilty of all the charges brought against him. <\/p>\n

After his business collapsed, he lived abroad for several years before being extradited from Brazil in 2014 to face trial. He was found guilty in December 2023 after a jury in an earlier trial failed to reach a verdict.<\/p>\n

Ribblesway was incorporated in May 2021. It bought the Co Wicklow house in December 2021, for \u20ac460,000, and had it renovated before renting it to Murphy. <\/p>\n

No mortgage was registered in respect of the property and publicly available documents indicate the house is the company\u2019s only asset.<\/p>\n

The owner of the company, John Holleran (62), with an address in London, incorporated several Irish companies focused on property investment around the time he set up Ribblesway. He gave a character reference in support of Lynn to Lynn\u2019s sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n

In the case before the High Court, Holleran is claiming Ribblesway entered into a binding agreement with Alan and Pauline Smith, of Killinure Glasson, Co Westmeath, in respect of 2-3 Fitzwilliam Terrace, Strand Road, Bray, formerly Shannagh Bay Nursing Home.<\/p>\n

He claims the agreement was entered into in May 2023, two months after the owners had announced the home was to close. The property was to be bought for \u20ac2.8 million. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe former Shannagh Bay Nursing Home in Bray, Co Wicklow. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

The Ribblesway claim is part of an injunction application seeking to prevent the sale of the Bray property by a receiver appointed in April 2024 by BBF Capital Partners Ltd. It also seeks to restrain the dispersal of any sale proceeds if a sale has already occurred.<\/p>\n

The property had already been sold by the time the Ribblesway proceedings were lodged. The Smiths, BBF Capital Partners, as well as the receiver, Ken Tyrrell of PwC, all dispute Ribblesway\u2019s claim that it had a binding deal with the Smiths.<\/p>\n

Shane Flood of BBF, which loaned money to the Smiths in 2017, described the Ribblesway claim as \u201cvexatious\u201d in an affidavit he filed in response to Holleran.<\/p>\n

All of the defendants have said Ribblesway is not in a position to give a reliable undertaking to pay damages if it is granted an interim injunction but later fails to convince the court that the injunction was justified.<\/p>\n

They say this is because Ribblesway\u2019s bank account has been frozen as part of a money-laundering investigation.<\/p>\n

The account was frozen in June 2024 when the District Court granted an order to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, according to Holleran\u2019s June 2025 affidavit.<\/p>\n

He said Ribblesway \u201cstrongly contests\u201d the basis for the order and planned to contest it. It is understood the challenge to the order has yet to come before the courts.<\/p>\n

In his affidavit, Holleran said he believed the \u201clikelihood\u201d was the company would be successful in challenging the order.<\/p>\n

The Garda were investigating Holleran\u2019s claim that he invested \u20ac1.4 million in Ribblesway after he sold his shares in a company in the UK, the June 2025 affidavit shows. <\/p>\n

Company filings indicate the cash injection occurred in late 2023 or early 2024. In December 2024, Ribblesway registered a charge against the house in Sallymount in favour of Holleran, company records show.<\/p>\n

The purported 2023 agreement between Ribblesway and the Smiths is on headed notepaper bearing the name Resi Quantum Solutions Ltd, a real estate company incorporated in April 2020 that uses the Sallymount house as its registered address.<\/p>\n

In the document, Ribblesway is referred to as \u201cRibblesway, trading as Direct Accommodation Services\u201d. <\/p>\n

Company Registration Office (CRO) documents show the business name Direct Accommodation Services was registered by Ribblesway in September 2022.<\/p>\n

Ribblesway is also the owner of the business name St Vincents Accommodation Services (Sandford, Dublin), the records show.<\/p>\n

It registered the business name Brothers of Charity Accommodation Services in August 2023 but changed the name to St Vincents Accommodation Services the following month. <\/p>\n

It is not known if any business was ever conducted by Ribblesway using these registered names.<\/p>\n

The High Court records in the Ribblesway case show the Smiths consented to Holleran meeting with BBF to discuss the Bray property and that money was spent by Ribblesway on a payment to BBF on behalf of the Smiths, and on work done on the Bray property.<\/p>\n

However, the deal proposed to the Smiths by Ribblesway never went ahead. Tyrrell was appointed a receiver in April 2024, despite the objections of the Smiths, and the Bray property was sold in May 2025, for \u20ac2.65 million, to a company not associated with Holleran.<\/p>\n

There was a capital-gains tax liability of \u20ac501,484 after the sale, leaving an estimated \u20ac1.37 million available for the partial discharge of the \u20ac1.8 million owed to BBF by the Smiths, according to the court records.<\/p>\n

In February, Ribblesway\u2019s application for an interim injunction was struck out by Judge John Jordan after Ribblesway failed to make an appearance.<\/p>\n

On June 23rd, barrister Amy Hughes, instructed by John Fahy and Co solicitors, Derry, asked the judge to restore the application on the grounds that Holleran had been in the US for a medical procedure at the time the case was coming to court, and the company\u2019s former solicitor had come off record.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael Lynn. Photograph: Collins Courts <\/p>\n

Bernard Dunleavy, instructed by Clark Hill solicitors, Dublin, for the receiver and BBF, opposed the application on the grounds that the company had ample time to get new legal representation. <\/p>\n

The judge decided to set aside his earlier decision but only on condition that the company paid \u20ac23,000 towards Dunleavy\u2019s clients\u2019 costs prior to July 22nd. <\/p>\n

He listed the matter for mention on July 30th.<\/p>\n

The court was told the receiver and BBF are seeking costs of \u20ac113,777 arising from the case to date, mostly comprised of solicitor fees of \u20ac40,000 and counsels\u2019 fees of \u20ac51,649, plus VAT.<\/p>\n

A request for comment to Holleran resulted in a statement from KWR solicitors, Belfast, who said it did not intend to engage in public comment about matters that are, or may become, the subject of legal proceedings.<\/p>\n

When The Irish Times called to the Sallymount property last week there were two cars inside the property, but there was no response. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A company central to an investigation into suspected money laundering by jailed solicitor Michael Lynn sought to buy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,72,61,60,80342,7469],"class_list":["post-530732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-michael-lynn","tag-wicklow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530732","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=530732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}