Businessman Sean Quinn Jr has walked from jail in Dublin – but his bankrupt father Sean could follow him to Mountjoy.

Once Ireland’s richest man, Sean Quinn has had the threat of jail suspended temporarily in his latest contempt hearing.

The same hearing released his son Sean Jr after three months in jail.
Quinn Jr was photographed by the Irish media leaving the court with his wife Karen.

The High Court in Dublin dramatically adjourned a contempt of court hearing against his father.

Quinn Sr, who owes the banks $4billion, was due to be sentenced for breaking court orders not to hide assets from the clan’s $700million property empire.

The Irish Sun reports that Quinn escaped sentencing after his new legal team was given two weeks to study the case before any sentence is passed down on Ireland’s former richest man.

The legal team for the former Anglo Irish Bank told the court the Quinns had made no effort to purge their contempt and stop concealing money and property from them.

Both Sean Sr and Sean Jr were found in contempt of the High Court in July and ordered to reinstate assets.

Justice Elizabeth Dunne said that new evidence before the court over the extent of asset-stripping was ‘disturbing’.

The Irish Sun also reports that Sean Sr was given a reprieve as the judge adjourned the case to give his new Belfast-based legal team time to come to terms with the complex case.

Quinn’s new representative Eugene Grant told the court that he and solicitors Kevin R Winters & Co were only hired to take on the case on Wednesday.

He applied for a four-week adjournment as he claimed his new clients planned to purge their contempt and the men had written to the IBRC regarding mediation.

Grant told the court that Quinn Snr was ‘a 66-year-old who’d undergone two serious heart operations and that his liberty is under threat’.

He added: “I’m instructed that he wants to co-operate and purge his contempt.”

Counsel for the Anglo Irish Bank, now trading as the IBRC, Paul Gallagher said orders were set by the court and weren’t a matter for mediation.

He told the judge: “As far as Sean Quinn Snr is concerned, no steps have been taken on foot of that order and nothing has been done in reinstating the property that has been taken from the various companies.”