Breaking News

This morning in the High Court in Dublin, two of the founder members of DDI Ben Gilroy and John Squires along with others helping the Freeman family defeated all motions of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) in the long running case of P FREEMAN & ANOR V BANK OF SCOTLAND (IRELAND) LTD & ORS.

Ben and John have been fighting this case in their role with People For Economic Justice, and in Court 16 this morning Mr Justice Gilligan dismissed the motions put by Bank of Scotland, and finally sent the case forward for full trial on the issue of securitisation. The team has been seeking a full trial without success for some time and have been stymied by counter motions by Bank of Scotland. So critical is this case that the Chief Executive Officer of Bank of Scotland had been required to fly from Scotland to be present in Court.

Now for the first time in Ireland the issue of securitisation of mortgages is going to be heard in court. The ramifications of this will affect almost every mortgage in the state, as the vast majority of mortgages have been combined into financial instruments and sold off as securities to other investors. It was this kind of securitisation that inflated the banking system to a state of bankruptcy and caused the financial bubble that sees us now forced into living under austerity.

In a separate case this week another motion brought by Ben against an Irish based bank resulted in the bank settling out of court for a seven figure sum. For legal reasons because of the settlement the case cannot be quoted.

Ben spoke after the case saying that he hoped that those detractors who have been spreading misinformation about how he operates in court, both in the media, printed press and in cyberspace, will be honourable and correct the imbalance they have caused.