The nephew of former billionaire Sean Quinn is on the run from a jail sentence in Ireland as the family dynasty collapses – and relatives are concerned for his well being.
Peter Quinn Jr was sentenced to three months jail time for contempt of court on Friday along with his cousin Sean Jr.
The pair were found guilty of contempt of court and jailed for three months each as the Quinn family contest the downfall of their financial empire.
Sean Jr is already behind bars at Mountjoy prison in Dublin and his father has been given time to consider his attitude to the court in the case.
But Peter Quinn Jr, son of the former GAA president Peter, remains on the run.
Irish police searched his known addresses in the Republic and sources in the North claim he is not at the family home in Fermanagh.
Police from the Republic are powerless to act upon his Dublin summons across the border and cannot issue a European warrant as the case is a civil one.
The Irish Sun newspaper reports that his family have voiced concerns about his ‘well-being and the difficult and frightening’ situation he finds himself in.
Cousin Ciara Quinn told the paper: “I haven’t spoken to Peter and I don’t know where he is. But when you are ordered by a court to do something which physically cannot be done, that leaves you in a very difficult and frightening place.”
The Quinns were found in contempt after a court order was issued forcing them to reverse a scheme whereby assets were put out of the reach of the former Anglo Irish Bank, one of their main creditors.
Sean Quinn Sr has issued a statement decrying the jail sentence and criticising the bankrupt bank which has been bailed out by the Irish taxpayer.
In his statement, Quinn said: “Anglo have treated us like dogs and have tried to put the entire family out on the road with the sole purpose of ensuring my wife and children would not be in a position to challenge the bank’s illegal lending.
“My family have stood up to the bank that took everything from them. This is what you do with bullies.
“My son has now been jailed for failing to do something which he cannot do, whilst five years on, no one affiliated with Anglo’s illegal practices have yet been brought to justice.”
Peter Quinn Jr got a relative to ring his solicitor on Friday morning and inform him that he wouldn’t attend the court hearing as he was ‘ill’.
The judge noted that he had been well enough the previous evening to file affidavits in the early hours and said that, bar hospitalization, there was no reason he should not have appeared before her.
2 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.angrypaddy | Jul 24, 2012, 12:21 AM EDT
Sean Quinn a Cavan schyster. Former billionaire my arse,he borrowed every penny of it.We all could be billionaire's in the morning if the banks were stupid enough to loan us the money.As for IrelandNorth someone from a "privileged class"what dung heap were you born under??You cant make a silk purce out of a pigs ear!"privileged class" my arse you must be easly impressed (gobshite's)like the rest of the country.
IrelandNorth | Jul 23, 2012, 05:58 AM EDT
Gaoling people for bad debts does not make economic sense. And putting someone from a privileged class in with pimps, drug pushers/addicts and burglars etc is hardly just. How come credit pushing banksters haven't been brought to justice. Is the current Irish Government as morally compromised by debt entrapping banksters as a previous one was by Caymen Island investment products. And "contempt of court" (sic) is an abused determination in Ireland, a country which for the most part suceeded in crow-barring the crown off the harp, but whose judges don't seem capable of removing clumps of matted horse hair from their own heads, a sartorial peccadillo inherited from an previous administrations occupational eccentricity. You'll never reform the law without reformed laywers.