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Tonight on Spotlight... | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
the first television interview with a former IRA gunman | 0:00:04 | 0:00:07 | |
who made millions in property, | 0:00:07 | 0:00:10 | |
now bankrupt, denounced for building a death-trap | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
that left hundreds of people homeless. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:16 | |
But he says he is the victim and he is certainly not sorry. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:20 | |
We are getting to the level of the gutter media. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
What would I apologise for? | 0:00:23 | 0:00:24 | |
Back in September, workmen fixing up this house on one of Dublin's | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
most prestigious roads made an incredible discovery. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
200,000 euro stashed under a bath. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
Thousands of 50 euro notes had been stuffed into bags | 0:00:56 | 0:00:59 | |
and hidden behind a bath panel on the ground floor. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
The authorities believed the money belonged to this man - | 0:01:03 | 0:01:06 | |
the former owner of the house, Tom McFeely. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:09 | |
Once an IRA hunger striker, | 0:01:09 | 0:01:11 | |
after prison, he made a fortune on the property market. | 0:01:11 | 0:01:14 | |
But he is now bankrupt, evicted from his former mansion, | 0:01:16 | 0:01:19 | |
and he has been accused of hiding much more money than this | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
from everyone he owes. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:24 | |
A lot of money was found in your house. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
Around 200 grand. Where did it come from? | 0:01:28 | 0:01:31 | |
Don't ask me. You may ask the people who put it there. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:33 | |
All I can tell you is that it is not my money. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
Do you think for one moment I left money behind me | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
and I forgot about it? | 0:01:39 | 0:01:40 | |
That even if the house was full of five, or six, or eight, or ten | 0:01:40 | 0:01:43 | |
security men, that I wouldn't have went in and took it out again? | 0:01:43 | 0:01:48 | |
That money matters, because it lay hidden at a time | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
when Tom McFeely owed millions - | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
much of that debt springing from | 0:01:55 | 0:01:57 | |
notoriously substandard building projects. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:01 | |
It was my money, he took it from me. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
Was he in a position to pay it back? | 0:02:03 | 0:02:05 | |
Absolutely. Absolutely. There is no doubt about that. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
We have learned that even his former bank thinks | 0:02:08 | 0:02:12 | |
he has hidden assets, but he says he is being persecuted | 0:02:12 | 0:02:16 | |
by Dublin's elite simply because he was in the IRA | 0:02:16 | 0:02:19 | |
and because he is from Northern Ireland. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
I don't have anything at all. | 0:02:22 | 0:02:25 | |
Not even a bank account, not a penny, not anything. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:28 | |
-Does he still have money? -I believe he does. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:31 | |
I believe it is very well hidden. | 0:02:31 | 0:02:33 | |
I have discovered evidence that, as his Irish empire was collapsing, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
Tom McFeely was paid millions of pounds in London... | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
..money traced back to Northern Ireland | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
that has now disappeared offshore. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:47 | |
Take the camera out of my face, friend. Camera out of my face. | 0:02:48 | 0:02:51 | |
Pursued by the media, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
hunted in the courts and now in disgrace, | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
Tom McFeely has been dodging the cameras for years. | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
But I have been meeting him on and off camera | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
over recent months. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
This is his only television interview, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:06 | |
giving his account of his rise and spectacular fall - | 0:03:06 | 0:03:10 | |
Provo, property mogul and now national pariah. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:14 | |
Tom McFeely is the son of a cattle dealer, | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
born into a family of 13 in Foreglen, near Dungiven. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:34 | |
When the Troubles began, he was working as a bricklayer in London. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:38 | |
He came home and became a committed gunman and bomber. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:42 | |
I am not one to sit down and deny | 0:03:46 | 0:03:48 | |
that I wasn't in the IRA, | 0:03:48 | 0:03:50 | |
or that I didn't do anything. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:53 | |
Of course I done to the best of my ability at the time. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
In hindsight, yes, I could have been better. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:58 | |
You could have been better? | 0:03:59 | 0:04:01 | |
Using the word better in the context of the IRA... | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
I could have been more efficient, yes. | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
What does more efficient mean in the terms of the IRA? | 0:04:05 | 0:04:07 | |
I could have done more than I done. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
'It is difficult to see how.' | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
Tom McFeely was caught with a bomb, | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
escaped and was recaptured with guns. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
In 1974, he blasted out of Portlaoise Prison, | 0:04:19 | 0:04:22 | |
and spent two years on the run. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
He was caught again after a robbery and armed siege near Greysteel. | 0:04:26 | 0:04:30 | |
Like many IRA members of the time, at his trial, | 0:04:32 | 0:04:35 | |
he refused to recognise the court, because it was British. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
Sentencing him to 26 years, the judge called him | 0:04:39 | 0:04:42 | |
"a dangerous, intelligent and vicious young man". | 0:04:42 | 0:04:47 | |
Do you regret any of the actions you carried out? | 0:04:47 | 0:04:49 | |
No. Why would I? If I was going to regret it, I wouldn't have done it. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:52 | |
Some people, with the passage of time, come to another view. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
Why would...? If you come to another view in the passage of time, | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
then it was wrong do it in the first place. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:00 | |
I don't believe it was wrong. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
I regret being in a position that I would have to do it, yes. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:07 | |
I wish I hadn't had to have done it. Do I regret it? No. | 0:05:07 | 0:05:11 | |
Tom McFeely spent 12 years in the Maze Prison. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
It was there that he first met another IRA member, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:17 | |
Anthony McIntyre. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:19 | |
He was a serious senior IRA figure | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
within the prison. | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
I met him in 1982 and developed a strong relationship with him, | 0:05:25 | 0:05:30 | |
a strong personal friendship with him. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
He was very intelligent, very courageous, | 0:05:33 | 0:05:37 | |
he probably was the most fearless individual | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
that I had ever met in my life. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:42 | |
McFeely was at the forefront of the IRA in jail. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
Among the first to refuse to wear prison uniform, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
he spent almost four years on the blanket and dirty protests, | 0:05:48 | 0:05:52 | |
then joined the IRA's first hunger strike in 1980. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:57 | |
-REPORTER: -Seven Republican prisoners began a hunger strike. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
They say it can be ended only by the granting of their demands, or death. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:05 | |
Tom McFeely refused food for nearly eight weeks | 0:06:05 | 0:06:08 | |
but the Republican leadership called off the protest. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:11 | |
You know, the saying, "It's not those who can inflict the most, | 0:06:11 | 0:06:13 | |
"but those who can endure the most." | 0:06:13 | 0:06:15 | |
To be quite honest, I would rather inflict it than endure it. | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
When he was released in 1989, Tom McFeely left home | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
and went back to the building trade. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
His destination was Dublin, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:34 | |
and during the Celtic Tiger's building boom, | 0:06:34 | 0:06:37 | |
everything he touched appeared to turn to gold. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:40 | |
When I went to Dublin, I put the same determination into succeeding | 0:06:40 | 0:06:44 | |
as I done to everything in my life. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
He formed an unlikely partnership | 0:06:46 | 0:06:48 | |
with polo-playing Dubliner Larry O'Mahony. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:51 | |
Their first major development was this west Dublin hotel. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:55 | |
They also turned a nearby car park into tens of millions of euro, | 0:06:55 | 0:06:59 | |
described as one of the shrewdest property deals of the Celtic Tiger. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
At one point, Tom McFeely was worth an estimated 320 million euro. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:09 | |
I had a sort of pride in Tom. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:11 | |
Because I had seen him at the bottom of the pile | 0:07:11 | 0:07:13 | |
in the prison, from the point of view of the prison administration | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
beating him and the torment that he went through, | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
and then, in some way, he rose to the top. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
But that was his game. | 0:07:21 | 0:07:23 | |
Tom could master things that he set his mind to. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
The former IRA prisoner, now a multimillionaire, | 0:07:25 | 0:07:29 | |
didn't forget his friends from jail. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
I phoned him one day as a last resort, | 0:07:31 | 0:07:34 | |
because I didn't want to work in building, and I said, | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
"Tom, have you any work?" | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
and his response was, "Yeah, come down, | 0:07:39 | 0:07:41 | |
"nobody from the H Blocks will ever be refused a job." | 0:07:41 | 0:07:44 | |
So, without doubt, he seen an old friend right. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:48 | |
He was exceptionally generous, I thought. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:53 | |
Because he could have easily said there'd be no work, but he didn't. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:57 | |
12 years after leaving prison, Tom McFeely was able to splash out | 0:07:57 | 0:08:02 | |
the equivalent of £3 million on a new home, a former embassy. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:08 | |
This is one of the most sought-after addresses in Dublin. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
If you've got a house here, you can count among your neighbours | 0:08:11 | 0:08:14 | |
developers, ambassadors, financiers, judges - | 0:08:14 | 0:08:17 | |
even a former Taoiseach has called it home. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
So, when Tom McFeely bought his house here, | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
what he was saying was - "he had arrived". | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
Not bad for a former IRA hunger striker. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:29 | |
The house contained an etching by Picasso, | 0:08:31 | 0:08:34 | |
and, according to McFeely, real gold leaf on the ceiling. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:38 | |
Quite a turnaround from a man who once belonged to the | 0:08:39 | 0:08:42 | |
League of Communist Republicans. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:44 | |
He says that beneath those wealthy trappings, | 0:08:44 | 0:08:47 | |
he was still a committed socialist. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:49 | |
-Do you still have...? -I still have them. | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
I would still... If tomorrow we could implement some | 0:08:51 | 0:08:55 | |
sort of socialist republic in Ireland, | 0:08:55 | 0:08:58 | |
I would be in the front of it. | 0:08:58 | 0:09:00 | |
I would be in the vanguard of it. I would have no problem... | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
Anything and everything I have, | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
I would put my shoulder to the wheel, yes. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:07 | |
'But Tom McFeely's attitude to sharing his wealth only went so far. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:12 | |
'One person who wasn't getting his proper share was the Irish taxman.' | 0:09:12 | 0:09:16 | |
Why did you have to be chased for eight million euro, | 0:09:16 | 0:09:20 | |
nine million euro nearly? | 0:09:20 | 0:09:21 | |
Why did I have to be chased from the taxman? | 0:09:24 | 0:09:27 | |
I think... | 0:09:31 | 0:09:32 | |
I don't know anybody at all... that would avoid paying tax | 0:09:36 | 0:09:42 | |
if they could get away with it. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
I think I paid, since I was went to the Free State, 67 million of tax. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:48 | |
This a capitalist system we are living in | 0:09:48 | 0:09:51 | |
and everybody takes everything they can get. That is nature of it. | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
But Tom McFeely got into more trouble | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
than run-ins with the taxman. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
Huge failings at his developments were exposed | 0:10:00 | 0:10:03 | |
when Ireland's building boom turned to bust. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:07 | |
This empty shell of apartments in Dundalk | 0:10:09 | 0:10:12 | |
was built by Tom McFeely's company six years ago. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:16 | |
Now it has been gutted by vandals. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:19 | |
The reason it is empty is that it had to be evacuated. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:25 | |
It had failed a string of fire safety checks | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
that should have stopped anyone living here in the first place. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:32 | |
But when tenants started moving in, Dundalk's fire chief was alarmed. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:37 | |
In September 2009, | 0:10:40 | 0:10:42 | |
I became aware that the premises, | 0:10:42 | 0:10:44 | |
20 units, were occupied | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
and still the work hadn't been done, | 0:10:46 | 0:10:48 | |
so I was really concerned at that point. It was very bad. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:51 | |
It was so bad that we immediately decided to serve a closure notice, | 0:10:51 | 0:10:54 | |
which is the most severe thing we can do | 0:10:54 | 0:10:56 | |
in terms of enforcements of fire safety requirements. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
20 tenants evacuated in 2009 at your Dundalk development? | 0:10:58 | 0:11:03 | |
-Yep. -What was that about? | 0:11:03 | 0:11:04 | |
It was about the car park, smoke in the car park. | 0:11:06 | 0:11:11 | |
If there was a fire in the car park... | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
they said there wasn't enough extraction in the car park. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
-Do you consider that serious? -No. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
It could be rectified by the simple measure of cutting a hole | 0:11:20 | 0:11:26 | |
in the wall of the car park, which allowed the air to come through. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:31 | |
That proposed solution would certainly not | 0:11:31 | 0:11:33 | |
have made the building safe. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:34 | |
It wouldn't even have dealt with one of our requirements. | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
Fire safety would soon become a much bigger problem for Tom McFeely, | 0:11:37 | 0:11:42 | |
embroiling him in a scandal of national proportions - | 0:11:42 | 0:11:45 | |
one that made hundreds of people homeless | 0:11:45 | 0:11:48 | |
and had tragic consequences. | 0:11:48 | 0:11:50 | |
This is Priory Hall - a McFeely development in north Dublin. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:56 | |
In October 2011, a judge was so worried about the fire risk here, | 0:11:56 | 0:12:01 | |
that he ordered its swift evacuation, | 0:12:01 | 0:12:04 | |
with fire engines standing by. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:05 | |
More than 200 people were made homeless. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:09 | |
-Will you come back here? -Never, I would rather sleep in the street. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:13 | |
Apartments here cost in excess of a quarter of a million euro, | 0:12:13 | 0:12:18 | |
and former residents spent the next two years facing mortgage | 0:12:18 | 0:12:21 | |
arrears on properties they could no longer live in - | 0:12:21 | 0:12:25 | |
homes that had become effectively worthless. | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
It was terrifying, | 0:12:28 | 0:12:29 | |
because, basically, our lives were turned | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
upside down over the course of one weekend. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:33 | |
Myself and my wife owed hundreds of thousands of euros. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:37 | |
Suddenly you're starting to wonder, are we, | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
for the first time in our lives, going to fall into these | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
huge financial difficulties, have nowhere to live, | 0:12:41 | 0:12:44 | |
and be stuck with this massive mortgage on a death-trap? | 0:12:44 | 0:12:49 | |
For one former resident, the pressure apparently became too much. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
Father of two Fiachra Daly took his own life last July. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:57 | |
His partner Stephanie Meehan spoke publicly about his death, | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
which happened days after they had received another warning | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
about their mortgage arrears. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
We had accumulated 19,000 plus | 0:13:06 | 0:13:10 | |
arrears on our moratorium. | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
And the usual letter that goes with it that your home is at risk... | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
We didn't have a home. | 0:13:16 | 0:13:18 | |
-Let's talk about Priory Hall. -OK. | 0:13:19 | 0:13:22 | |
This has got more to do possibly with politics than anything else, right? | 0:13:22 | 0:13:28 | |
-It might have something to do with building construction. -It might. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:31 | |
-Does it? -It might. | 0:13:31 | 0:13:33 | |
-I do not believe that Priory Hall should have been evacuated. -Why not? | 0:13:33 | 0:13:37 | |
Because it was not the fire trap they said it was - | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
no problems there that could not have been rectified. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
In Celtic Tiger Ireland, | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
a strict UK-style system of building control just didn't exist. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:49 | |
Contractors certified their own work as being up to standard | 0:13:49 | 0:13:53 | |
and Tom McFeely maintains that the people | 0:13:53 | 0:13:55 | |
he hired passed Priory Hall as being fit for purpose. | 0:13:55 | 0:13:59 | |
This is all the documentation certifying everything. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:02 | |
Is it not your duty, Tom, to ensure a certain quality standard? | 0:14:02 | 0:14:06 | |
Just one second. We will get to that. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
This stuff went to everybody. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
Are you telling me that I personally should stand round | 0:14:12 | 0:14:18 | |
watching 200 apartments getting built and I am going to see everything? | 0:14:18 | 0:14:21 | |
For the people who lived in Priory Hall, that rings hollow. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
The fact of the matter is, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:29 | |
256 people in Priory Hall lived in severe danger for years. | 0:14:29 | 0:14:34 | |
Those 256 people lost their homes all because corners were cut. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:38 | |
What everyone really wants to know is, | 0:14:38 | 0:14:41 | |
do you apologise to the residents of Priory Hall for what happened? | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
We are getting to the level of gutter media. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
-What would I apologise for? -A shoddy build. | 0:14:49 | 0:14:51 | |
I don't think it is a shoddy building, you see. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:53 | |
I don't think it is any different | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
to most of the other buildings in Dublin. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
McFeely's business partner, Larry O'Mahony, | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
was cleared by a court of responsibility for Priory Hall. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:04 | |
But Tom McFeely says he's been seen differently | 0:15:04 | 0:15:07 | |
because he is a Republican from the North. | 0:15:07 | 0:15:10 | |
Anthony McIntyre worked at Priory Hall | 0:15:11 | 0:15:13 | |
dealing with residents' complaints. | 0:15:13 | 0:15:15 | |
Tom McFeely's old comrade says he's got it wrong. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
We have failed our residents completely. | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
I have made many mistakes in life. | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
I am full of regrets. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:25 | |
But Priory Hall figures highly. | 0:15:25 | 0:15:27 | |
Not because I feel responsible, because I didn't build it, | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
but I feel I let them residents down. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
Priory Hall has cost Dublin City Council | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
an estimated four million euro in security and rehousing costs. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
It became an unavoidable issue for the Irish government after | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
Stephanie Meehan spoke about Fiachra Daly's death. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:49 | |
They should have dealt with it two years ago. | 0:15:49 | 0:15:51 | |
Then we wouldn't be in this mess. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:52 | |
There wouldn't have been millions of taxpayers' money, | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
and, most of all, we wouldn't have lost a life. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:57 | |
Tom McFeely does not see how he can be in any way | 0:15:57 | 0:16:00 | |
responsible for Fiachra Daly's death. | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
Why didn't everyone else not commit suicide? In Priory Hall? | 0:16:03 | 0:16:08 | |
What was the difference there? | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
We are getting into something here and we are | 0:16:10 | 0:16:13 | |
arguing about something which is very emotional | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
and stressful on his family that is left behind, and it shouldn't be. | 0:16:15 | 0:16:20 | |
I am not to blame for his suicide. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
I've spoken to Stephanie Meehan about Tom McFeely's interview. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:27 | |
She told me she doesn't bear him any ill will. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
Fiachra Daly's death forced the Irish government to step in to help | 0:16:31 | 0:16:35 | |
Priory Hall residents reach a settlement with their lenders. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:38 | |
The inescapable irony is that Fiachra Daly killed himself | 0:16:38 | 0:16:42 | |
over a debt that was not much more than the money found | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
in Tom McFeely's former home. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:48 | |
-How does that make you feel? -Terrible, absolutely terrible. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:52 | |
That money could have saved Fiachra Daly's life. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
There is no other way to explain it. | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
With the problems of Priory Hall headline news | 0:17:05 | 0:17:08 | |
and arguments flaring over who was responsible for the residents, | 0:17:08 | 0:17:11 | |
Tom McFeely pulled an unexpected move. | 0:17:11 | 0:17:15 | |
He quietly asked the courts to make him bankrupt, not in Ireland, | 0:17:15 | 0:17:19 | |
but in England. | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
He told the bankruptcy court there he had only £5,000 to his name. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:26 | |
His debts amounted to almost £300 million. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
Why did you apply for bankruptcy in Great Britain? | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
Why did I apply for bankruptcy in Britain? | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
By dint of what the Free State done in the 1920s, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
I am a British subject. | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
I don't like it, I won't like it till the day I die, | 0:17:46 | 0:17:49 | |
but that's not the point. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:50 | |
People will find it curious that you fought | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
and almost would have died for the Irish Republican Army, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:57 | |
and yet you chose to avail of bankruptcy of the Queen. | 0:17:57 | 0:18:03 | |
Tell me something... | 0:18:03 | 0:18:05 | |
If you were hungry tomorrow, | 0:18:05 | 0:18:08 | |
which of the two passports would you eat to put the hunger off you? | 0:18:08 | 0:18:11 | |
People will hear that as a faintly unbelievable statement, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:15 | |
given that you fought to rid Ireland of British rule, | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
-then you applied for bankruptcy in Britain. -Of course I did. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
You think there is something strange about that? | 0:18:21 | 0:18:24 | |
I was working here, living here. What would you have me do? | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
The fact is, bankruptcy in Britain is much more lenient | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
than in the Republic of Ireland, | 0:18:32 | 0:18:34 | |
and other Irish developers have used it as an escape route. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
In Tom McFeely's case, it meant he could wipe out his many debts | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
and be back in business in only one year. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
But this woman wouldn't let him get away with it. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
Theresa McGuinness was owed over 100,000 euros, | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
after she sued McFeely for another shoddy build. | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
But he hadn't paid her when he declared himself bankrupt. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
Tom McFeely went to the UK | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
and tried to pull a very smart job | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
off on the UK court system by declaring himself bankrupt. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:13 | |
The fact that he was living in his palatial house, paying nobody, | 0:19:13 | 0:19:18 | |
you can't live like that. | 0:19:18 | 0:19:20 | |
You're not allowed to live like that. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
Theresa McGuinness decided to challenge | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
Tom McFeely's UK bankruptcy. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
She and her partner Gerry investigated McFeely's finances. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:32 | |
But, unable to afford big legal bills, | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
Theresa chose to represent herself in court. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
Tom McFeely didn't realise | 0:19:37 | 0:19:39 | |
he had met his match, | 0:19:39 | 0:19:41 | |
and didn't realise that he had met | 0:19:41 | 0:19:43 | |
somebody who was far stronger than he would ever be. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:45 | |
Theresa McGuinness argued in the UK that Tom McFeely should be | 0:19:45 | 0:19:50 | |
facing his debts back in Dublin. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
Remarkably, the former IRA hunger striker said it would | 0:19:52 | 0:19:56 | |
breach his human rights to expose him, | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
as a British citizen, to the punitive laws of Ireland. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:03 | |
Theresa McGuinness won | 0:20:03 | 0:20:05 | |
and McFeely's claim to a UK bankruptcy was thrown out. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
She then had him declared bankrupt under the tougher Irish regime. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:13 | |
Bankruptcy in itself is supposed to be the solution. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:17 | |
It is not a punishment. | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
In what way was the solution for Theresa McGuinness | 0:20:19 | 0:20:23 | |
bankruptcy in Ireland, or bankruptcy in England, | 0:20:23 | 0:20:27 | |
apart from begrudgery, spite? | 0:20:27 | 0:20:29 | |
What good did it do her? | 0:20:31 | 0:20:32 | |
We showed Theresa McGuinness what Tom McFeely said about her. | 0:20:32 | 0:20:37 | |
What good did that do her? | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
'She got the better of this Northern IRA man? Is that what it's about? | 0:20:40 | 0:20:45 | |
'Because that is what it seems to be about.' | 0:20:45 | 0:20:47 | |
Poor Tom, he is really feeling sorry for himself. | 0:20:47 | 0:20:52 | |
-Is that what it was about? -No. | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
He says you got the better of him as a Northern IRA man. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:59 | |
I honestly have never used his Northern Irish connections | 0:21:02 | 0:21:08 | |
or activities ever, ever, in any of my court proceedings. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
-So what's going on in Tom's head? -He's insane, absolutely insane. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:18 | |
-So when he says that? -He's looking for sympathy. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
He will never get sympathy from me. | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
Tom McFeely owes millions. | 0:21:27 | 0:21:29 | |
He says he has nothing and can't pay anyone back. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:33 | |
But is that really true? | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
Some of the people he owes think he's actually hidden away far more | 0:21:35 | 0:21:39 | |
than the money found under the bath. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
It's a view shared by his own bankers. | 0:21:42 | 0:21:45 | |
I'm in London looking for what's believed to be | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
the source of Tom McFeely's secret money. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:55 | |
In the mid-2000s, Tom McFeely bought a patch of land in London. | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
Now, not just any patch of land, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:02 | |
a potentially very lucrative patch of land in the East End, | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
close to where the forthcoming Olympic Games were going to be held. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:09 | |
And on it, he built this. It's called Athena Court. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:14 | |
Once valued at almost £90 million. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:17 | |
Though he bought the land and built the tower block, | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
Tom McFeely says it's not his. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
Yet he has been accused of siphoning off | 0:22:23 | 0:22:25 | |
huge sums of rental money from it. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:28 | |
This firm of letting agents nearby were paying him | 0:22:29 | 0:22:32 | |
£32,000 a week to rent out the flats, according to a court case. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:37 | |
Money that McFeely says didn't go to him. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
Were Filtons taking rent for you? | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
-They weren't taking rent for me. They were taking rent. -For who? | 0:22:43 | 0:22:48 | |
What difference does it make who it was for? | 0:22:48 | 0:22:50 | |
McFeely was connected to the payments two years ago | 0:22:50 | 0:22:53 | |
when the letting agents were taken to court. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
The judge said that there was a strong suggestion that one | 0:22:55 | 0:22:58 | |
substantial payment had been intimidated out of them, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:02 | |
by Tom McFeely. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:04 | |
When we caught up with McFeely a second time, | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
he said that was all wrong. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
Show me the person that was intimidated. | 0:23:09 | 0:23:11 | |
Just show me the person that was intimidated. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
Get him, get the person that I intimidated, please get him. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:18 | |
Show them to me. Where are they? | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
I called the letting agents to ask about this | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
and they didn't want to talk. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:25 | |
So just how much money was at stake here? | 0:23:27 | 0:23:30 | |
How much has Tom McFeely been accused of hiding? | 0:23:30 | 0:23:33 | |
According to court records, the answer was found tucked away, | 0:23:33 | 0:23:37 | |
not in London, but back in Northern Ireland. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:39 | |
Campsie, outside Londonderry. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
This is where Tom McFeely based another of his companies. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
In the company's e-mails were the records of the London rent deal, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:50 | |
and the total amount is staggering. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
An e-mail sent here showed that those London rents | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
came to a total of £2.9 million. | 0:23:56 | 0:24:00 | |
£2.9 million paid at a time when Priory Hall was a mess | 0:24:02 | 0:24:06 | |
and Theresa McGuinness was still owed her money. | 0:24:06 | 0:24:09 | |
But who has that money now? | 0:24:12 | 0:24:13 | |
Tom McFeely denies it was paid to him. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:17 | |
He says it went to a company called Ashwood Enterprises. | 0:24:17 | 0:24:22 | |
It's based on the Isle of Man. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
The question is, who controls Ashwood? | 0:24:25 | 0:24:27 | |
Because it's based in the Isle of Man, | 0:24:30 | 0:24:32 | |
the owner's identity is a secret. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:35 | |
Inside this building are the corporate service providers | 0:24:36 | 0:24:39 | |
who, until recently, ran Ashwood for its real, hidden owners. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:44 | |
Now, obviously they know who that is, | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
so I'm going to try to find out a bit more about it. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:49 | |
My name's Ciaran Tracey. I'm here from the BBC. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:01 | |
I would like to see someone from Ashwood Enterprises? | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
The people in here wouldn't give us any details about Ashwood. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:08 | |
But we know Tom McFeely's family was connected to the company. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:12 | |
His brother Derek was once a director of Ashwood. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
And there is someone else who knows | 0:25:16 | 0:25:18 | |
who benefited from that £2.9 million. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
Do you know who the beneficiary is? | 0:25:20 | 0:25:22 | |
-Of course I do. -Why the secrecy? | 0:25:22 | 0:25:25 | |
There is no secrecy. The bottom line is it is none of my business. | 0:25:25 | 0:25:29 | |
People say you are the ultimate beneficiary. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
People have said a lot of stuff about me, led by the mob. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:38 | |
But some of the people saying it were Tom McFeely's own bankers. | 0:25:38 | 0:25:42 | |
Bank of Ireland has alleged that Tom McFeely is behind Ashwood. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:46 | |
And in written submissions to a London court, | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
it said he has hidden money. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:52 | |
And we've learned that the Irish official overseeing McFeely's | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
bankruptcy has made the same accusation. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:59 | |
Tom McFeely denies it. And says they haven't got a shred of evidence. | 0:25:59 | 0:26:03 | |
A representative of Ashwood has written to us. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:06 | |
He says Tom McFeely is telling the truth | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
and the London rents wound up with Ashwood. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
He wouldn't tell us who controls the company, | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
but he says it's not Tom McFeely. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
Tom McFeely says the bank knows who really got the money. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
He says they've only accused him of controlling Ashwood because the | 0:26:21 | 0:26:25 | |
Irish government's bad debt agency, NAMA, is trying to discredit him. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
The only option the court is left now is trying to prove that I am Ashwood. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:35 | |
That is what NAMA is doing at the moment. And I am not Ashwood. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:41 | |
No, and I never was Ashwood. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:43 | |
And it was probably set up three or four years | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
before I even knew about it. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:47 | |
Who ended up holding those £2.9 million in rents remains a mystery. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:54 | |
-Have you been hiding any assets? -No, listen to me. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
Everybody has been looking. I am in bankruptcy for just over two years. | 0:26:57 | 0:27:01 | |
If there is anything that I have had for two years, | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
I'm sure somebody would have found something. | 0:27:04 | 0:27:07 | |
That he still have money? | 0:27:07 | 0:27:08 | |
I believe he does, I believe it is well hidden | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
and I believe he is playing a waiting game. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:15 | |
The time will come when people will take their eyes off Tom McFeely | 0:27:15 | 0:27:19 | |
and he will be free to operate. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
Tom McFeely and Ashwood remain closely connected in one respect. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
Together they are going back to court to argue that the London | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
apartment block was illegally taken by NAMA. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
That will bring the former IRA man back to the courts of the Queen. | 0:27:31 | 0:27:36 | |
I expect to get justice and the law in England. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:40 | |
That is something for an Irish Republican to say. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:42 | |
People will see a lot of legal action, and say, | 0:27:42 | 0:27:46 | |
"If you are bankrupt, how you funding this?" | 0:27:46 | 0:27:49 | |
I am finding it from friends, there is a lot of... | 0:27:49 | 0:27:53 | |
The lawyers are doing it pro bono. And I have asked people for money. | 0:27:53 | 0:28:00 | |
Everybody is not against Tom McFeely, you know. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
I am not going to be like a politician | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 | |
and claim that everybody loves me, they don't. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:08 | |
But there is a lot of decent people in the country, | 0:28:08 | 0:28:10 | |
a lot of decent people. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:12 | |
Most of what has been recovered from Tom McFeely's properties | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
has gone towards his bank debts. | 0:28:16 | 0:28:17 | |
Spotlight has learned that NAMA sold off Athena Court earlier this month. | 0:28:19 | 0:28:23 | |
The new owner's identity is also hidden offshore. | 0:28:23 | 0:28:26 | |
The proceeds of the sale, for just over £30 million, | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
will go towards paying off what Tom McFeely owed the banks. | 0:28:29 | 0:28:33 | |
Even the bulk of the cash under the bath | 0:28:36 | 0:28:38 | |
has also gone to cover bank debts. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
Fiachra Daly's partner and their children were given 5,000 euro | 0:28:41 | 0:28:45 | |
from that stash, | 0:28:45 | 0:28:47 | |
thanks to the generosity of the house's new owners. | 0:28:47 | 0:28:49 | |
Theresa McGuinness has received nothing. | 0:28:49 | 0:28:52 | |
Will you ever get your money? | 0:28:52 | 0:28:54 | |
No, but I have closure. It is done, dusted. | 0:28:54 | 0:28:57 | |
OK, I do not have the money I was owed, but life is not about money. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:03 | |
I can sleep, I have a good lifestyle. | 0:29:04 | 0:29:06 | |
Thomas McFeely doesn't, really. | 0:29:09 | 0:29:12 | |
From the Troubles to the Celtic Tiger, Tom McFeely has lived | 0:29:12 | 0:29:16 | |
at the forefront of Ireland's worst excesses. | 0:29:16 | 0:29:19 | |
But he claims he will prove he has been victimised, | 0:29:19 | 0:29:22 | |
regain his fortune and one day live again at Dublin's best address. | 0:29:22 | 0:29:26 | |
Oh, I know I can get the bankruptcy overturned. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:29 | |
What was done was illegal - I have no doubt. | 0:29:29 | 0:29:31 | |
It was this IRA man from the North, no-one will say anything, | 0:29:31 | 0:29:34 | |
he was notorious, he was this, that, everything, | 0:29:34 | 0:29:39 | |
so let's kick him. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:40 | |
But I am not going away. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:44 | |
I ain't going away, I'm here, I'm around. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:48 |