A Galway man, deemed “gullible” by Mr. Justice Brian McGovern in a high court ruling, was awarded €181,000 from a €212,000 business investment because of misrepresentation by a businessman he dealt with after finding him on DoneDeal.ie.
The court heard that Patrick Loonam, was the victim of a “bizarre scam” where he handed over €10,000 with the promise he could make €20,000 by changing “nearly out of date” €5 notes through a credit union.
The judge found that William Kenny, also from Galway enticed "naive and gullible" Mr. Loonam to invest in the €5 scam as well as misrepresentation to get him to invest in various companies following Mr. Kenny's advert on DoneDeal.ie.
In November 2011, Mr Loonam, contacted Mr. Kenny after seeing his ad on DoneDeal.ie and decided to invest in a tyre and car/truck wash company as well as in the purchase of a catering trailer with the view to starting a catering business for customers of the truck wash company. He gave €212,540 to Mr. Kenny for equity in the businesses.
Psychiatric evidence found that Mr. Loonam was a vulnerable individual who could be taken advantage of, following cognitive impairment as a result of a bad head injury in a crash in 2001.
The judge decided that the "foolishness" of Mr. Loonam in not taking his solicitor's advice before investing and also a salary that he was paid, warranted a reduction in the sum of money awarded.
Hat-Tip: Irish Times
Related Articles
Tags:
