A boarded-up house on one of the most exclusive roads in Ballsbridge that was sold in a “fraudulent transaction” six years ago is due to be auctioned this week with a guide price of €1 million.
The Victorian house at 13 St Mary’s Road in Ballsbridge raised eyebrows in 2018 when it appeared on the Property Price Register (PPR) as having sold for €525,000. Houses on the Dublin 4 street were typically fetching more than €2 million at the time.
However, court documents show the purported vendor “never owned the property” in a case described by High Court Judge Brian O’Moore as “truly extraordinary”.
The house, a protected structure, was bought by Liam and Keira Curran in 2006 and they entered into a mortgage with Permanent TSB, now PTSB in 2007. In 2015 the bank took possession of the house and became its legal owner.
Concerns were subsequently raised by Dublin city councillors and neighbouring homeowners about its increasing derelict condition. The house was entered on to the council’s derelict sites register, but removed in 2017 after the bank cleared large amounts of rubble and litter from the front garden.
In January 2018 the house appeared on the PPR. However, neither the bank, nor the Currans, had any knowledge of, or involvement in, the purported sale. They took legal action against Hamilton Holdings a US-based company that had been registered as the owner of 13 St Mary’s Road.
In his June 2023 judgment, Mr Justice O’Moore said Hamilton had purportedly been sold the house by a company called Kent International Holdings with an address in Nevis, in the West Indies in January 2018. Kent, in turn, had purportedly acquired the property from the Currans in July 2014, which was, Mr Justice O’Moore noted, “a matter of some surprise to the Currans and to PTSB”.
The evidence before the court was “that the Currans never sold the property, either to Kent, or to anybody else”, he said. “The alleged deed of conveyance of the property from the Currans to Kent has never surfaced.”
Mr Justice O’Moore said he had “no option but to find that the asserted conveyance of the Ballsbridge property to Kent was a fraudulent transaction” as the purported conveyance of the house from the Currans to Kent “never happened. Any deed purporting to have effected such a transfer is a fraud.”
The subsequent purported conveyance of title to the house to Hamilton was “a fraud and/or a nullity and is void and of no legal effect”, he said.
In October of this year, a trial opened in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in relation to the fraudulent procurement of the Ballsbridge house and another property in Phibsborough.
Herbert Kilcline (62), a former solicitor with an address at Bessborough Parade, Rathmines, Dublin, was found guilty of eight counts, which included failing to apply the required measures as a designated person, using a false instrument and fraudulent procurement of entry to the land registry between September 2016 and June 2018.
Philip Marley (53), a businessman and former owner of Ely properties, with an address at Rathbourne Court, Ashtown, Dublin, pleaded guilty to three counts, which included procuring the registration of a false deed, fraudulent procurement of an entry into the land registry and deception.
Both men are due to be sentenced on Monday. An online auction of 13 St Mary’s Road is to be held by estate agents Quillsen on Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for PTSB said “complexities regarding title issues” had previously prevented the bank from progressing with the sale of the house. “However, as these matters have recently been fully resolved, the bank is now in a position to progress the sale of the property.”
